


Against the Gods

by AliceN_Wolf



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Depression, F/M, Fake Character Death, Ice Powers, Sleep Deprivation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-06-12 04:13:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15331482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliceN_Wolf/pseuds/AliceN_Wolf
Summary: With the past so far behind and needing it to stay behind, Aria is faced with the challenge of having to deal with the citizens of Asgard, her home. With that comes the past, and unfortunately, for her, all of it. Even if no one knew who she was, will she be able to keep her identity a secret?Set in the Marvel Universe after Thor: Ragnarok where the Asgardian people are on a trek to Earth. With the help of Heimdall, Thor goes to Natasha to see if there was anywhere safe his people could go before they land and she shows him pictures of the woman who went by the name Elizabeth, an Asgardian in disguise.





	1. Chapter 1

**Spring**

Norway in the springtime was one of the most beautiful times of the year, at least that’s what Aria thought. The almost year-round snow would melt from the mountains and make beautiful natural waterfalls. With the addition of the flowers blossoming, it was truly a prepossessing place. But nothing like her home, Asgard.

She shook the thought away.

It had been a long time since she thought about that place and she wasn’t going to start now.

Aria loved her home on Earth. She never thought to find the comfort she once had and even now she was skeptical of the idea. Natasha Romanoff, an Avenger, and agent of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D) helped Aria find a sense of stability. Natasha gave her a secluded home and even a piece of technology that would mask her to appear as someone else.

To the universe, Aria was dead.

A day in the town not too far from the empty field Aria lived in was supposed to be like any other. Getting food, maybe give into a few dreamcatchers, the usual. Aria had spotted a towering male in the distance whose build resembled someone of her past but she shook the thought away after she reminded herself of her disguise if it was him.

At the same beaten up dreamcatcher booth, Aria was in awe at the sight. The old man that worked there reminded her of her own father, at least the man who helped raise her with another woman. The old man would sell the dreamcatchers his wife made and bring her home more supplies to do what she loved as she was on bed rest. That was also how they spent their money, doctor visits.

Just as Aria was about to pick out a white feathered one she had been longing for days now, a strong body stood next to her, speaking in hushed tones.

“I was sent to you for help.”

Aria looked up slightly, stealing a glance of the now short-haired dirty blonde and new eyepatch-wearing man as she recognized his, as humans would say, Australian accent, that some Asgardians shared other than British.

She grabbed the medium-sized combination of feather and twine off of the hook and walked away. “Ask help from someone else.”

She smiled at the old man and handed him the dreamcatcher.

“I know you’re an Asgardian. Please. Our people need your help.”

She almost froze, mentally scolding Natasha and sighed as she still made no eye contact with the man. “I cannot. Please, leave me be.”

Aria exchanged money with the old merchant and walked off after receiving a bag, not seeing the Asgardian follow her. But a hand on her shoulder, forcefully turning her around told her otherwise. “Thor, leave me be, please.” She said lowly with anger in her tone.

Before she could turn around to leave, he placed a finger behind her ear, turning off the piece of technology disguising her.

A look of horror panned over Thor’s features and Aria felt cornered as she saw her own reflection in the blue of his saddening eye. The short blonde hair and green eyes along with features that weren't her own faded and down dropped her hazel waist length hair and blue eyes appeared along with her features.

“You’re alive?” He askied breathlessly, almost in question and full of disbelief as he pulled her into a hard and long-awaited embrace.

He harshly pulled away and kept a hand on her shoulder, a sense of anger now in his bloodstream.

“I mourned you- Asgard mourned you. Loki went off the rails because of you, and you’ve been here, hiding and leaving people in despair.”

Aria looked down and felt a coldness brew inside of her. Not one that anyone would expect. She looked around at the people giving her and Thor looks and grew conscience of her being.

Thor took notice of her shrinking esteem and leaned down to meet her eyes.  
  
“You may seem equal to these people but you are no stranger to me, Lady Aria.” She felt her stomach drop at her own name that she hadn’t heard in years. Not since she first got there and was given her new name.

The coldness started to go away and the warmth from the spring Norwegian air around them brought her back to normality.

She sighed and looked down, minimalizing her voice. “You said you needed help…?”

Thor heaved a sigh of relief and started talking. “Asgard is was destroyed by my older sister, which I have, well, had, while she was getting destroyed by Surtur who’s pretty much a giant demon who wanted to destroy Asgard. So, we let him so he could kill her.”

Aria stared at him in silence.

“We got as many people as we could, out. Now we need somewhere to go.”

Aria pressed a finger behind her ear, feeling for the device and clicked it on. She shrugged off a strap of her backpack from her shoulder, carefully placing her newest prize inside. “Follow me.” She said, walking past him and keeping an eye out for following eyes.

After walking past the shops and booths, they had walked into an empty alley where Aria made sure no one would see the magic they would’ve witnessed. Aria shook her hands out of sudden nerves and remembered what minor things she was taught by Doctor Strange: Teleportation.

She took out a two finger ring from her front pocket and breathed before she put it on her left hand. She outstretched her hands before her and tried to clear her mind. She rotated her left hand in a clockwise motion and sparks continuously moving in a circular motion started to move rapidly. Aria was satisfied until the sparks started to fade and out came a glitchy, multi-areal portal that changed to a black hole since it changed to the empty space where Asgard would have been. She made it instantly disappear and tried again to clear her mind, knowing she shouldn’t have thought the first was sufficient.

Once again she outstretched her hands and rotated her hand clockwise, opening a rift to a two-story cottage in the middle of a field. Thor looked at her, at the portal, back to Aria and stepped towards the portal, looking behind it and seeing the alley. Aria rolled her eyes at his confusion and hoisted both straps of her backpack onto her shoulders and brought the portal towards her. The portal sucked both Asgardians in before closing behind them. Thor stumbled on his own two feet at the change of asphalt to grass shifted underneath him.

“I see you’ve learned from the Wizard.” He said, looking back at the portal shrinking behind Aria.

She laughed slightly to myself, “Wizard? Strange _wishes_ he was a wizard.”

Thor turned around and looked around in awe at the snow-tipped mountains and almost botanical garden surrounding the secluded wooden cottage. “Is this your home?” He asked.

“Norway was the first place that popped into Natasha’s head at the moment.” Aria took in the fresh cool air surrounding them and made the minimal trek for her house. Thor was quiet, more interested in the environment and possibly trying to reevaluate the past couple hundred years he thought Aria was dead. 

“My father was here… He died when Loki and I were here to take him home.”

Aria looked back, taking notice to Thor’s means for conversation and clicked off the device as she met his pace. “My condolences. He came to make amends not too long ago and knowing Odin, I suspected it was for something more insulting but to learn he came to make amends that could not be forgiven, it took me by surprise. Your father loved to see me fail... ”

“Ah yes, all the more reason to advertise your death as my brother has.” Thor looked over with almost a flick of his eyebrow and Aria stopped in her tracks at the name she didn't have the luxury of pulling away from by prying eyes like she had in the market.

When Thor noticed her freeze in place, he stopped and turned around to face her look of mixed emotions.  
  
“Loki is dead?” She asked, almost breathless.

“No. He faked it but I let bygones be bygones and our relationship has grown to be less toxic I suppose.” Thor turned around and practically skipped towards the house with his light-heartedness on the topic of his brother.

Aria heaved a rigid breath of relief and crouched down, placing the palm of her hand on the ground. She looked up to see Thor still walking and felt the inner coldness spread down her arm and make a layer of frost on her skin as she made a pile of fluffy white snow. She picked up scoops of it in her hand and applied it to her face, needing a refresher before pressing the device back on. She knew she wasn’t going to have the life she had on Earth ever again and surprisingly, not only did she know it was going to happen, somewhere deep inside her, she felt a pang of relief.

Aria caught up to Thor as he stood on the porch and waited for her. “Well, let’s hope you letting bygones be is for the best.” She said, reverting to the conversation from a few minutes ago. She placed her backpack on the island counter and took out the paper bag holding her newest favorite dreamcatcher. She would usually place them by a window where the sun would bless her house with shapes but this one felt like it needed to be in its respective place.

“Nice to know that some things never change.” Thor admired from the doorframe of Aria’s room as she hesitated to place it on the headboard of her bed. She placed the dreamcatcher on her nightstand and turned around to see Thor wistfully looking at the dreamcatchers hanging on the long framed mirror in the corner of the room.

Aria slid the glass door leading to the balcony and signaled Thor to follow her outside. She sighed and gestured to the empty land around them and pointing at an area just before the lake behind her house. “You can land the ship there, I should have enough ready by the time you arrive.”

Thor nodded, placing his arms on the railing and bending. “I can’t believe you’re alive. Wait till Loki hears-”

“Loki is not to know, Thor,” Thor turned, almost asking ‘why not’ but Aria continued without even needing him to ask. “Surely you can understand.” She almost laughed, but seeing Thor's saddened expression made her attitude shift quickly. 

"Even though he did it, he never was the same after you." With a soft sigh at the end, he called out to the sky with no real intentions of leaving and in a combination of rainbow and white light, he was gone. 

She sighed heavily, going back inside and flopping onto her queen sized bed. She started to feel the need to cry out three hundred years of unspoken, unattended, pain and loss. She quickly got up and took off the small device, walking into the bathroom and turning on the faucet.

Three hundred years.

Three hundred years of trying to forget.

Three hundred years of numbness. 

Three hundred. 

 

**Asgard, 450 years ago**

Aria heard them talking about the options of the daughter that wasn’t their own more and louder than usual and couldn’t sleep continuously knowing she didn’t belong. It was rare that she had slept at all. She remembered her real mother, the lack of needing a man for her creation, the soft lullaby she sang, the sounds of her mother’s screams in a whole other realm, the look on her new parent's faces upon first sight, everything.

Not being able to take it anymore, she got out of bed and crawled out of the window to go to the one place she could truly breathe. Passing the towering set of the palace buildings, she had made it to a rather large Oak tree that usually stood alone but surprisingly someone was sitting underneath it.

No one was ever there.

Everyone stayed in their respective places on Asgard, and being that Aria wasn't one to really do so, it made since that she had a curiosity about the world around her. But now there was another. 

Aria stepped closer to the tree and noticed a manly figure already underneath it. She was going to step back and let him have his moment but before she could, the figure turned around and stood up.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Aria assured the figure who she now , stepping back. She was to the man’s neck in height and instantly recognized him as one of the heirs of Asgardian royalty and instantly bowed. His pitch black hair with green, gold and black clothing was definitely something that she had to squint in the dark to see. 

“That’s quite alright miss…” Loki took in the girls appearance as he bowed slightly, almost at a loss since he had been seeing her up close for the first time since he had seen her in this same spot under the oak tree from his room in the palace. Her hazel hair draped to her hips and blue eye shone like waters on the clearest of days. Nothing like the dark glass green in his own eyes that Aria found herself shying away from.

Once he realized he was staring, Loki cleared his throat and gestured to the spot. “W-Was this your spot? My sincerest apologies. I-”

“No- yes- I mean yes it’s my spot but it’s fine.” Aria stammered and Loki found himself admiring her obvious nerves.

Loki leaned down unconsciously and smiled, “Are you sure?”

“There’s no reason we can’t both use it.” She smiled in return and once again she shied from Loki’s admiration. “S-Shall we?” She stammered and they both sat on the grass.

A silence fell over the two and both innocently stole looks form each other, one turning before the other longs over the other and neither could say it wasn’t a comfortable silence.

Loki shifted towards her, their legs unconsciously touching yet raising their body temperatures to their figurative maximum. Aria turned her head towards him attentively. “So, what brings you here so late in the night?” He asked.

Aria looked at the mountains in front of them, sighing as she mentally outlined the tips with the millions of visible stars and empty space behind it. “I couldn’t sleep. I guess I just needed to get some air. Get away.”

“Is it from anything in particular?” Loki asked.

“I’m not sure…” Aria let her words hang as she mindlessly touched the grass on the opposite side of her where Loki was not and glazed it with ice before letting it melt under the touch of her regular body heat. She looked over at Loki who was watching her facial expressions, wanting to read her mind and pry until he knew everything there was to know.

But something was stopping him.

“What about you?” She smiled.

Loki almost scoffed a laugh, “What _about_ me?”

“What brings you here at this time?” she asked with a new found grace in her voice that Loki would’ve melted under in an instant.

Loki smiled, “Why to accompany the girl I’ve seen from my window some nights sitting under this tree, of course.” He nudged her shoulder and Aria felt a warmth gloss over her cheeks.

“Is that true?” She asked, looking into his eyes.

“Minorly,” Loki said nonchalantly.

Aria tilted her head to the side, “And the majority?”

“Same as you, actually. Though I usually just stare out the window and wonder why you sit out here some nights and why you don't others.” Aria looked up to where Loki pointed and sighed at the sight of the palace.

“What’s it like?” She asked with pure curiosity and not out of the ‘commoner-like’ mindset most had.

Loki waited for her to look back at him to start talking. “You know, miss, I don’t find myself compelled to lie to you. So, instead of telling you it’s wonderful, that my family all wear halos, that I am treated like the god I am like I was raised to say and believe, I won’t.” Aria smiled softly, understanding and feeling the warmth spread across her face.

“...At a later date, though. When I am able to fathom it into words myself. Is that alright?”

She smiled again and nodded, “That’s alright.” Aria felt a piece of her hair fall towards her face and she shyly placed it behind her ear as Loki mirrored her smile.

“Enough about me. What’s your life like?” He asked, propping his head on his hand and relying on his elbow for support as he laid on his side.

“It’s um... It’s not as interesting and eventful as yours, I’m sure.” Aria felt herself shy even more as she saw his face awaiting a real answer and noticing the true interest in them. She sighed and laid on her back, “I take over the house while my mother and father work in the market. She sells jewelry she makes while he sells art. Some my own...”

Loki hummed. “I’ve seen you bring out something with you, a sketchbook?”

Aria turned her head to meet his gaze down at her. “Um, sometimes, yes. Other times, a journal of a sort.”

Loki hummed again.

Aria turned her head back to its normal position where she was looking at the night sky. “It’s like my mind works an infinitely faster pace at this time of night. So, ideas, situations, the life I live, they all feel so… suffocating. So I come out here when I know, well, thought no one was awake, and decompress.”

“I know the feeling.” Loki said more to himself than Aria but couldn’t tear his eyes away. He watched her breathe, mesmerized by the way her chest softly rose and fell. The way her full eyelashes fluttered as she blinked or looked at him. How she fiddled with a ring on her right ring finger and how she bit her lip softly as she thought. The way her blue robe of a dress lightened up her already blue eyes and the fact that they mirrored the stars in the sky, twinkling every now and again. 

Loki couldn’t help but figuratively feel himself slowly walking towards a large cliff. 

“So, what do we do now? I think this is the latest I’ve watched you and that’s while I’m not here... I- I mean I wasn’t stalking you per say, more of an observing from a distance… but not in a creepy-”

Aria sat up slightly, mirroring his shifted body and stopped his rambling. “Loki,”

Loki loved the sound of her voice saying his name and the lighthearted laugh that followed.

“I know what you mean, it’s okay. We don’t really do anything but admire everything that deserves to be admired.” She gave him a soft smile for what seemed like the millionth time that night and while she meant the sky and beauty surrounding them, she couldn’t help but find a new meaning in it the longer she sat with Loki.

They just looked at each other in silence for a few seconds before Loki broke it, once again.

"I’m surprised.” He said, looking softly into her eyes.

“By what?”

“You. You don't look at me like everyone else does, weary or distasteful, scared even. I’m sure you know of the maniacal tricks and lying filled reputation I’ve made for myself.”

“Loki,”

Loki’s heart skipped a beat. That was two times she had said his name and he wanted to hear it over and over again.

“You’ve done nothing to me personally that I should act that way towards you. I believe in fairness, an eye for an eye if you will.” Silence fell again on the two as Loki was unknowingly admiring her and Aria looked down at the grass before her. “And maybe I understand what that’s like…”

Loki was almost angry at the sight of the slightest bit of anything that wasn't happiness in Aria’s eyes. He didn’t even know her name and knew why he couldn’t pry his way into her head. He couldn’t bring himself to.

Loki leaned down, trying to find Aria’s eyes and when they locked onto his, he smiled. “I enjoy your company miss.”

She mirrored his smile, “And I, you, Loki.”

Three times.

A silence fell once again and neither one were bothered by it. But time was passing, and rather quickly.

“While I’d like to sit here and discuss our lives together- I mean, our separate lives, in a conversation between the two-”

“Loki.”

This time he knew it would come if he rambled and no matter how much he thought he was prepared, his stomach still dropped. He cleared his throat, “We should go before we get caught out of our places.”

“Okay.” Aria smiled softly.

Loki took one last long look at her and wanting nothing more but to be of her and only her. As Aria started to get up, Loki stood first and held out a hand for her to grab, which she took and almost tripped on the length of her dress, causing her to practically fall into his arms. Both instantly warmed at the feeling and Aria pulled away, putting her hair behind her ear and crossing her arms.

“I would like to continue this later on in the morning, after my training. Say, late noon?” Aria was almost taken aback by Loki’s proposal of seeing her but couldn’t help but want to be around him all the time.

Another smile spread on Aria's lips, “Late noon it is.”


	2. Chapter 2

Just outside the solar system, on the ship headed towards Midgard, Earth, Loki sat on a stool and sipped on his drink. His brother arrived with the news days ago that he had found safe haven there and had fast-tracked their arrival.

Midgard, the place he tried to rule.

The place he killed hundreds only to try to measure up for his father. Evidently not in a way that was welcomed since he was to be imprisoned for the rest of his days.

He was going to leave with Thor’s friend Valkyrie and the others that came with Korg to a planet or realm where he could start over, never see his brother again but he figured, there was no point in running to nowhere again if it was just going to be brought right back to the same things.

A body sat next to him, as he thought and he turned his head slightly to see his brother, Thor then back to his drink. “Loki there is something I must tell you before we land.”

“Not now brother.” Loki took a sip of his drink, wanting to be left alone.

“But-”

The jolt of the ship indicated that it had landed and Loki chugged down the last bit of his drink left. Thor walked away and stood at the entrance/ exit door and spoke loudly enough for the entire ship to hear. “Asgard, welcome to Norway, a place on Midgard we call home for now.”

The large door opened and the botanical garden surrounding a two-story cottage was filled with rather large tents. Loki walked to the entrance/ exit where his brother stood. 

“She’s outdone herself,” Thor said at a loss for words.

“Who has?” Loki asked.

“An Asgardian,” Thor said too plainly for Loki’s liking. 

“She did all this? What’s her power, elemental related?” He asked referring to the botanical-like gardens by the lake and the breathtaking scenery as a whole.

“No. I’m not aware that she has any powers actually.”

 

Aria walked out of the house just in time to see the ship land and people pour out. That day she grew lost in thought of the past and was able to pull herself out of it, she had created a snowstorm inside of the bathroom where her body was frozen underwater.

For the first time in just about three hundred years, she clothed herself in Asgardian-like attire and wore a dark orange dress for the arrival, getting into the tradition as she placed clothing in the host. She braided her alias’ blonde hair and pinned it to stay off her shoulders even though the blonde only touched her shoulders briefly.

As the ship almost emptied, and they got closer, Aria greeted them kindly. Thor along with his brother, and friends Heimdall, and Bruce Banner followed once all were off the ship and met Aria in her place.

“I had forgotten how many people were on Asgard,” Aria smiled and greeted them all.

Thor looked at the possible brewing tension even though nothing happened and was ready to drag Loki away from her. “Yes well, we wouldn’t want to keep them waiting on settling in.”

Loki stepped almost in front of Thor, “And who might our savior be?”

Aria bit the inside of her cheek harshly overcome with emotions she had never thought would return so quickly. All at once for that matter.

“Elizabeth. If you would excuse me.” Aria graciously walked off in no way that was noticeable of rising panic. A body walked next to her and she turned her head to see the dark-skinned, amber-eyed man she knew as her longtime friend, Heimdall.

“We are grateful for your hospitality.” He smiled.

“There’s plenty of land here. I couldn’t say no.”

“But you wanted to...”

Aria slowed her pace, “What?”

“Did you forget I have the ability to observe anyone in the nine realms?” Heimdall almost pouted pettily but morphed into a wide smile. Aria gave him a friendly soft hug, confusing Loki and Banner in the distance behind them.

Banner backhanded Thor twice, “They seem to be getting along well.” He pointed as they walked.

Thor smiled, “Yeah… it’s been a while.”

The two let go of each other, and they continued to walk. “Does Loki know?” Heimdall asked.

Aria almost looked back to see the three following. “Not that I’m aware of, and I plan to keep it that way.”

“Of course. I helped you get out of there, didn’t I?” He said quietly, leaning down slightly.

“And I can’t thank you enough for it but it appears as if there was no point in the end.” She said softly.

“You left for a reason. There is no room for those conflicts to resurface now that Thor is our King. Loki, if he does find out, has no right to act any way about it.” They had reached the camp and she looked around at the groups of people under tents and walking around.

Aria smiled, masking her discomfort. “Well, I best be going. I’m sure there is someone who needs help adjusting.” She walked away and tended to each tent, one by one and knew it was closing to nightfall so she advised they turn on the lights hanging from the top of each tent.

She handed extra blankets where it was needed and was happy that the six-meter tents could hold more than enough people and that they were on sale by the bunch. Aria plugged in the dangling lights she had held up with posts every other tent and was happy to see it illuminate well even though she had tested it three times with nerves in her system.

“Might I ask where my room is?” A voice said out of nowhere, almost making Aria drop the blankets and pillows. “Oh, I didn't mean to startle you.”

She placed a hand over her chest, regulating her breath. “No, it’s alright. I, um, it’s across from Thor’s in the cabin on the lower level. Do be kind and let us rest peacefully.” Aria said nonchalantly as she turned to walk away, earning a flick of an eyebrow from Loki.

“What makes you say that?”

She didn't realize she let a slip of knowing him in the past through and instantly recomposed herself, stripping him from her mind, well, attempted to. “Thor has just shared a few stories with me at some point where you disrupted him in his sleep and speaking of, you should get to it.” She handed Loki a blanket as if he didn't already have one in the room and walked away leaving Loki even more confused.

Why did everyone seem to know who she was except him?

 

A few hours later when everyone was asleep, Aria opened the window on the wall opposite her bed and crawled through it to sit on the roof after another sleepless night after Thor’s visit. A decompression was of serious need due to another accidental snow storm in the works. She looked up at the sky and waited for the aurora borealis to shimmer over the night sky.

Downstairs, Loki laid wide awake looking at the ceiling above him. He was upset that he had no idea who this person was and how it seemed that the people around him were so invested in her. He sat up and decided to pay a visit since telling by the faint footsteps he had listened so intently for, he knew she was awake.

Loki closed his eyes and sent a double of himself to where she was.

“Why is it that everyone else knows you? It’s like I wasn’t even invited to the party.” Aria turned in a jump for the second time that night and sighed at the sight of the man she was just forcing herself to forget about.

“I don't have an answer for that, Prince Loki.” she turned back to look in the distance. 

“You know, there’s something that draws me to you and I haven't the slightest idea as to what it may be.” Loki lied, trying to get something out of her without force.

Aria looked at her kneecaps as her thighs were to her chest. “It’s a shame you feel that way…” She looked at him as he helped himself to a seat beside her.

“My condolences for Asgard. It was a beautiful place.”

Loki looked over at the woman and shrugged. “It was more of a gilded home than anything,” he sighed, speaking the truth. He turned his head to face forwards and mirrored her stance. “The Asgardian ruling used to be perfect, that was when I was a child of course, and as time progressed, it was just- different.” Aria knew what he meant, she was apart of it. But Elizabeth didn’t so she had to play along.

“Odin? The Queen? Thor? They don't seem the  _'different'_ type."

Loki nodded. “That's exactly what _you_ would think. Royalty seems perfect to the public eye but as I previously stated, it was gilded.”

Aria spoke through her teeth, not wanting him to continue. “How awful,”

“It was. I was forced to do unimaginable acts, fake a smile. All for approval, in hope that the love my brother had would grow onto me." he said plainly. 

Aria flatlined her lips, almost angry, “So the God of Mischief couldn't enchant those to believe he's done the act?”

Loki looked over and almost laughed. “Odin was always quick to release himself from my tricks and plus, I wasn’t as knowledgeable of my power then to persuade the audience as well.”

Aria waved her pointed finger nonchalantly. “Ah, _that_ act. I remember that day. Was a shame. That poor girl was weak enough to believe there was anything at all. Unless you lied, which, in that case, you would think the Prince of Asgard would have the freedom to do as he pleases.”

Loki’s intentions of being there were to probe Elizabeth’s mind without her knowledge but found himself engaged in the conversation at hand.

“Indeed you would...” While Loki hated that he had let himself go into a lick of detail about the love of his life that he hadn’t spoken of in three hundred years. Back in his room, he had let the soft tears flow at the memory while his double just sat there.

Aria felt the brewing storm within turn into something more dangerous so she stood up and started to leave. “I’m heading to bed. You should stay for the light show.”

The Loki double turned, “Light show?”

Aria gestured to the sky above them, “Its nothing like Asgard, but it's beautiful. Stay, look. There's a ladder on the far right edge to get back on the ground. Goodnight.”

Loki turned around and waited on the rooftop for the light show Elizabeth had spoken of. When Loki grew tired of waiting and was about to make his double disappear, a sudden ribbon of color danced in the sky. An array of emerald and purple shone together in a breathtaking string amongst the stars opening up the sky as the Aurora Borealis slithered across the sky. 

 

 

**Asgard, 450 years ago**

That morning, Loki had practically sprung out of bed with a lightness to his step. As he ate with his family at the table, his brother was the first to notice the even more odd behavior from his brother.

“What has your spirits in the air?” Thor asked, smiling as Loki finished his food.

He ignored his brother and rounded the table to kiss his mother's cheek, “Nothing.”

As they trained together, his brother tried to hold a conversation with him while they fought. “I have to say, brother, whatever happened, you have never fought better.” Thor threw a side sweep at Loki and made him fall on his back. “But not good enough.” He smiled as he pointed his weapon at him.

Loki showered after his training and in his room he shook his charcoal black hair into the towel. He wiped the fog off of the mirror and saw the unusual cheeriness in his changing colored eyes. They were within the span of blue and green, nothing more, nothing less. He made sure he was all dressed and fixed to his liking before heading out without a word to his father or anyone who might’ve wanted to know where he was.

As Aria walked up to the spot that she had only really been to at night, she spotted an awaiting Loki and felt herself burn up. Loki turned around and smiled as he was happy she wasn't a dream as his mind had tried to tell him multiple times throughout the day.

“You’re here,” She smiled.

“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Shall we?” He asked. Aria turned as they walked down the hill. Loki walked with his hands behind his back as she fiddled with the strap of her bag.

“Aria.” She said out of nowhere. “That’s my name…” she put her hair behind her ear and smiled at the people walking by as they reached the lesser populated part of town.

“Aria. What a beautiful name.” A silence fell over them as he knew that he had made her blush. The sound of her name rolling off his tongue made Aria’s stomach fill with butterflies that wanted to break away so forcefully.

She turned to him slightly, “How was training?” She watched the eyes that she had thought to be a dark green the night before but were blue almost of her own look over her.

“Dreadful. I don't mean to brag, but against opponents, I am untouchable to an extent. But with my brother, Thor, that skill can only go so far.”

“In other words, not as great as it could’ve been?”

“You could say that… And your day?”

“Good. I painted, a lot, visited my father in the market to give him some of them and cleaned around the house until my mother came home to make dinner. I left before she finished and here we are.”

She smiled at a couple walking by as Loki politely nodded and his eyes widened as he saw two guards walking towards them. Loki looked around at possible hiding spots and softly grabbed Aria’s arm into a very small hall where she yelped from the sudden movement. Loki waited until the guards were gone for his mind to unravel and breathe. He looked down at the woman in his arms and instantly backed himself only to have his back touch the wall. She laughed as she tried to move but it only brought them chest to chest. Loki looked down almost breathlessly and she felt her breath hitch at the closeness.

“If you wanted to get me alone, you should’ve just said so, Loki.” She laughed in sarcasm, making him laugh. “Are they gone?” She asked, but neither one of them leaning out to check.

“Maybe,” he said without care.

Loki wanted to lean down and kiss her as she smiled and Aria WANTED him to. Aria wanted nothing more than to feel his lips on hers and the window for it was closing, and closing quickly. Loki inched his face towards hers and before their lips were able to touch, children laughing and running past their spot made them laugh and shut down the moment as a whole.

They peeled from one another as they tried to get out of the small area and Aria tried to grip onto Loki’s top to stop him from falling backward, but Loki grabbed onto her, making her fall on top of him. “Oh, gods” She laughed. Loki lifted a hand and put Aria’s hair behind her ear making the butterflies turn into lions instantly. She got off of his body and held a hand out to help him up.

Loki instantly missed the smell of vanilla and they continued their stroll as if what happened never did.

When the sky grew darker and the valleys emptied out, the two found themselves walking in close proximity to each other as they learned more about one another. Hobbies, interests, foods, memories from their childhood.

“When we were children, my brother loved snakes, probably still does. So because I have a certain distaste for him, I disguised myself as one and when he went to pick me up to admire the snake, I transformed back into my normal self and stabbed him.” Loki was on the verge of tears of laughter and Aria couldn't help but laugh along which was music to Loki’s ears.

“You are indeed, the God of Mischief.”

As they walked out of the valleys and through a forest, the sound of rapid waters peaked Arias interest. They advanced towards the sound and found a waterfall with bioluminescent plants around it. Aria took off her shoes and practically ran towards the rocks peeking out of the clear blue water. Loki followed and took his shoes as well, sitting down beside Aria as she let her feet touch the water.

She looked over the waterfall illuminated by green and blue plants. “It’s beautiful.” She said to no one in particular and almost forgetting the man’s presence.

Loki admired the way her eyes perfectly reflected the water falling, “It is, isn’t it?”

Aria turned her head to find Loki’s now almost dark blue eyes on her own instead of on the waters. She smiled knowing what he meant and felt her heart beating twelve times faster. Loki looked down at her soft blush lips and felt himself leaning as he had done earlier that day and when Aria was moving to meet him halfway, she put her hands to his chest and playfully pushed him into the water with a laugh.

Loki resurfaced flipping his black ear length hair out of his face. “And to think we were having a moment!” He laughed, spitting water out of his mouth as he swam. Aria stood and put her bag down, gathering the length of her dress in one hand so it wouldn’t get wet as she held the other out.

“We are!” She laughed.

Loki took her hand and instead of letting her pull him up, he held on with both hands and pulled her in.

Aria resurfaced, splashing Loki and almost struggling to stay up with the material on her. She swam where she was able to feel the bottom and Loki swam quietly behind, bringing her towards him when he was close enough. Aria turned around with a laugh and was almost breathless as she felt his grip around her waist tighten slightly.

“Is that moment still available?” He asked softly, looking back and forth between her eyes and pushing her hair behind her ear.

Aria smiled, “It never wasn’t.” With that, Loki wasted no time in pressing his lips to hers and Aria melted at the touch. While the interaction played for some time, every time each one said it was getting late, the other would have a petty objection and back in the water they went.

“Loki,” Aria said against his lips.

He hummed in response.

“We really must go.”

Loki kissed her harshly one last time before pulling away. “And here I thought we had all the time in the world.” He smiled.

“We are hundreds of years old, time is already in our hands.” She smiled. Loki kissed her forehead and the two swam towards the edge and climbed out of the waters. Aria squeezed the length of her dress and watched as the water flooded out and onto the rock the stood on. Loki closed his eyes and he used his power to dry himself in a second.

Aria looked over and scrunched her eyebrows together. “That’s not fair.”

Loki laughed under his breath. “All you had to do was ask, love.”

Aria’s heart, for the millionth time that day, beat faster than normal and before she knew it, she was dry. She grabbed her bag, put her shoes on, as did Loki and they walked hand in hand through the forest.

Unfortunately, their hands found their way back to themselves once they hit town. Neither thought too harshly of it and were happy they were able to continue their talk.

“So, Prince of Asgard, out with a commoner. What a talk that would be.” Aria laughed.

“Nevermind that. They _know_ you, not me. If anything, the talk would be ‘Aria, out with the mischievous Prince of Asgard’.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Next morning**

Aria woke up with a nightmare the next morning, well, more like at the vividness of a memory from the past and looked at the single dream catcher she kept in her room after putting the majority of them away. “Did you forget how to do your job all of a sudden?” She said to the grey dream catcher. She got dressed in a light jacket and jeans and brushed her alias’ blonde hair blissfully before she looked saw past her balcony through the mirror, seeing the ship. “Not a dream... okay.”

Hours later, when everyone had eaten, Thor stood on the porch watching Banner, and Loki moving through tents to check up on people to help out as Aria had done a few times that morning. They had taught customary things like politics and the money systems, even style, after the request that they be given that knowledge with the help of Loki's magic.

“The people are adjusting wonderfully.” Aria smiled as she stood next to Thor.

He looked down at her as she stood beside him, looking out at the camp, and almost forgot who she truly was. It hurt that she had faked her death. Allowed people to believe that her spirit was no longer around for new memories to be made. His best friend died. He was there. He cried in his mothers arms, willing himself not to kill his brother for what he'd been the cause of. He carried that pain in the back of his mind. Even though his brother had faked his own time after time, Loki was still his brother at the end of the day. No matter what. But he couldn't seem to take it a little more to heart about the reappearance of Aria. 

“Am I doing the right thing?”

“What do you mean?”

“I know humans, there are some that are… alright, in terms of sanity but, I’m not sure if I want my people to live amongst Midgardians as you have.”

“There are just minor differences to conceal.” she shrugged. 

“You mean to hide behind a mask?” Thor spoke without thinking and Aria knew it was pinned against her.

She bit the inside of her cheek. “I best be going...” Thor held her arm, stopping her before she was able to turn and walk away.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“That’s exactly what you meant," She snapped, and Thor dropped his hand from her arm. Before she let herself leave she turned back around, "Did you tell Loki?”

Confusion played on Thor's features, “No, why would you ask such a thing?”

Aria looked around before stepping closer to him and speaking in hushed tones, “He joined me on the roof last night obviously having some suspicion of a sort. Now, I ask again, did you tell him?”

“No, but you should. He deserves to know.”

Aria spoke through her teeth, “He doesn’t deserve anything.” She walked away despite Thor’s calls and walked to where Heimdall was standing on the porch, watching the camp.

He looked over, smiling at her, “It is difficult to get their heads around but they are strong people nonetheless.”

She said nothing as she sat next to him, absentmindedly watching Loki.

“Any forced interaction?”

She broke her gaze, “Plenty.”

“Does he know?”

“I've been told otherwise.”

Heimdall hummed. “For now, it’s best he doesn’t. Our focus should be on our people which I am surprised to say, he's been graciously assisting us with.”

Aria looked over at the other Loki's walking around and a ghosting smile played on her lips, “I see that.”

 

Aria had made her rounds once again, helping parents with their children, teaching children basic math, etc. and it wasn't even 5 o'clock. She made her way towards one of the tents towards the house and stopped when Loki blocked her path with a smile on his face.

“I would like for you to join me for lunch.”

“Unfortunately I cannot, I’m needed in the-”

“No your not.” Loki had sent a double of himself to the tent she was just about to point to.

Aria bit the inside of her cheek, “You didn’t have to do that, I’m perfectly capable of working on my own.” She moved to walk around him and he followed.

“But not only does it make you run out of excuses to give me but it speeds up the process of getting these people out of your hair.”

Aria turned around almost making him bump into her, “These people are no bother to me as you are. Now, if you’ll excuse me-”

She turned to walk away again and Loki rounded her, stopping her once again. “Come on. You haven’t eaten at all today and already half of the noon is gone.”

She rolled her eyes, looking over at Thor who had been watching them and sighed, “Fine.”

 

On the roof where they were last night, they sat feet apart as they ate sandwiches in silence before Loki broke it.

“So, Elizabeth, how long have you been on Earth?”

Aria finished chewing before she answered, “A few years.”

“How do you travel?”

“A man named Strange taught me a way to get around.”

A flash of recognition panned over Loki’s features. “Strange. Wears a red cape, yellow gloves?”

Aria stopped before she was able to take another bite. “Yeah…?”

“We’re not the greatest of friends.” He recalled his last time on Earth weeks ago when he and Thor came looking for their father (after Loki had placed a spell on him and sent him to Earth) only to fall for half an hour while his brother was with some sort of sorcerer who sent them to their father's location. That sorcerer being the very same Strange.

Aria almost laughed, “I wonder why.”

“Ah, your sarcasm is a delight miss.”

They talked for what seemed like hours and Loki thought he was going to use the time to pry into her mind like he wanted to the other night but found himself once again engaged in conversation.

“I haven’t laughed this much in a long time,” Aria said as her laughs turned breathy. A silence fell over them as they stared at each other and Aria cleared her throat, standing up and brushing off dirt from the back of her jeans. “I should get back. Thor should be expecting me soon for an update on the people.”

“Why do you not allow the slightest bit of joy?” Loki said, still sitting.

Aria looked down at the camp, and back at Loki before leaving, “I shall see you around…”

Loki got up himself and picked everything up before meeting his brother downstairs, now standing on the porch instead of with the people as he had seen minutes ago. He watched as he saw Thor watching Elizabeth and found himself doing the same, but with envy.

“How did you know Elizabeth on Asgard? Neither her name or face triggers any recognition.”

Thor crossed his arms, “She lived in the villages, a friend nonetheless.”

“Were you close?”

“Very, once. Why do you ask?” Thor turned his head towards his brother as Loki kept his eyes trained.

“There’s something about her that seems… familiar.” He lied. 

An anger boiled in Thor’s blood as he then pointed into the black haired man's chest, “Elizabeth is not to be taunted by your wits and games, Loki. Do not push your luck with this “familiarity”.”

He held his hands up in surrender and watched as Thor turned to leave. “I push nothing, brother...”

 

That night, Loki waited. He waited for her footsteps to completely stop so he could do what he’d been trying to do since he got here. He didn’t care about Elizabeth like he was making it seem. But he did care that it seemed like everyone was in on a joke he had no idea about. He waited until there was pure silence before closing his eyes and sending a double of himself into her room.

Her blonde hair flopped over her face as she slept and Loki closed his eyes before opening them again and looking into her mind. Flashes of a frost giant and years of art played in his wake but were then consumed by moments surrounding and involving him, moments he had never had with Elizabeth before and it was almost a thought that she was instead looking into his mind at this point and torturing him with memories he had never let himself forget as she had tried.

Years of being broken and living in Neifheim and planets unknown trying to rid the memory of him away swarmed him and once she made it to Earth, a glance of her looking into a mirror made him almost rip himself from the trance and a flash of a redhead he remembered from when he was imprisoned on Earth giving her a device and transforming her in front of the mirror in to Elizabeth made him rip his double out of the trance.

He breathed heavily and lightly tossed Elizabeth’s blonde hair from out of her face and behind her ear where a device you wouldn’t notice at first glance, or at all for that matter, sat just where the memory had placed it and with a press of his finger, the woman he loved with every fiber in his body laid before him.

Loki reverted her back to Elizabeth, made the double disappear and sat up with a nightmare-like gasp. He paid no mind to the Frost Giants as he would have had if it were anyone else but his concern was Aria.

Anger flooded his body and he flashed himself into his brother's mind as he slept.

“Did you know?!”

Thor turned around, taken aback by Loki’s presence and the shifting surrounding into an empty field as opposed to the dream he was having milliseconds ago. “Know what?”

“About Elizabeth being Aria? Oh and, I don't know, that she's alive?!"

A pan of inexplicable emotion flooded Thor’s features as he clenched his jaw, both compassion and anger having a tug of war in his head. “I tried to tell you before we landed-”

“You lied to me!”

“I did what a good friend asked me to do!”

“But lying to your brother was the better option?!”

Thor remained silent as he watched Loki paced back and forth in rage, grief, relief, sorrow, mourning, everything. He felt like a child who hit their younger sibling and wanted them not to tell of his attack. He stepped towards Loki's still pacing figure, “You are not to make her aware you know…”

Loki stopped, tilting his head and squinting as if to ask ' _Are you serious'_ , “And why is that?!”

“It is one thing to create a wound, Loki, but to dig your fingers into it is another. Nothing will change after this discovery.”

Loki pulled himself out of his brother's mind, too upset to do anything else and stared at the wall for hours. When the sun touched the horizon, he watched as the light illuminated his room. 

 

**Asgard 450 Years ago**

“What’s the rush, Loki?” Loki closed his eyes for a moment as he kept walking until Thor walked in front of him, walking backward. “Nothing, leave me alone.”

“Oh, it can’t be nothing, brother. Because it seems like every time you sneak out of here, you come back a little… weirder.”

“And you get a little taller.”

Thor smiled, still walking backward, “So, who is she? Do we get to meet her? Does father know?”

Loki rolled his eyes, “No one. No, and no.” Months passed after that night and still, Loki was unable to make it through his brother who finally had been in the mood to bring it up and bother him.

“If shes no one than you wouldn’t mind if-”

Loki waited for a wall to appear behind Thor before shoving him into it and covering his mouth. “You say anything and you're dead.” Loki pierced his baby blue eyes into his brothers own and Thor couldn’t help but smile under Loki’s hand.

He nodded and Loki let him go. “You have my word... But you might want to conceal it more, mother might be onto you as well.” Loki nodded and started to walk away but his brother wanted to know more of this mystery girl who had a tolerance for his brother's tricks.

“...What’s she like?”

Loki groaned as Thor followed him.

 

Aria knew of her parent's old age. Being more than nine thousand years old combined, she knew that if one left, the other would die of heartache being that they loved each other more than anything. And the worst part was, her father was growing fatally ill.

“Aria… my flower…” Aria put her bag down before going upstairs to her parent's room where her father laid in bed. Neither parent looked like Aria other than her mother’s dark blue eyes which even Aria had an icy shade of. Both had their white hair from old age and yet, no one had ever asked about the unlikeliness to the two.

“Yes?” She asked lightly.

“Are you… ever… going to… invite him… for dinner?” He breathed heavily.

Aria smiled softly, “Who told you?”

“Villagers… talk.” He reached for her hand, smiling. “Are you… happy… flower?”

Aria nodded uncontrollably, making her father smile. “He does, father. He really does.”

“Does… he know?” and just like that, the topic that had played in her mind for months flooded so cruelly into her mind. The infinite possibilities. She could be sent back to her home realm of the frost giants, Jotunheim. She could be killed. Her fingertips started to freeze over and her father calling her name brought her back to reality and let her hand warm back up.

“I… see the… hesitation in your… eyes. You are… not… like them.”

Aria slowly took her hand back knowing he meant no harm but did some anyway. “Not like them? You mean, I’m not like the monster awaiting to attack on Asgard at any given time? Not like the monster parents tell their children about at night? I’m-”

“Aria-”

“I  _am_ a monster. It’s in my blood. If I'm anything other than the Asgardian I've led them to believe, that I've led myself to be, and they find out the source of my power, I could be sent back to Jotunheim. Or killed. A-and-”

“Aria… I didn’t mean it… like that.” Her father tried as she had already stood up and walked off. She knew the meaning behind his words even though he didn't intend it that way. The constant damage for hundreds of years was already done. Storming down the stairs, she almost tripped on her dark orange dress and would have gladly welcomed the fall if it meant forgetting the conversation.

She almost stormed out of the house but stopped at the door, knowing she was being harsh and walked upstairs back to the room where her adopted father laid.

“If you… were anything… like… them… you wouldn’t… have come… back.” He smiled softly before closing his eyes and letting his body turn to a yellow light and floating out the window. Aria held herself as she watched the light fade out and then heard her mother’s footsteps behind her. She closed my eyes in regret that she came home a second too late. Her mother brushed past her and loomed over the now empty bed. Aria walked up to her as she turned around and brought her into a hug. Aria didn't say anything as she let her mother cry. Her adoptive mother wasn't one for many loving emotions but she definitely loved her husband more than anything so the overwhelming factor of tears was understanding.

She promised to not dwell while Aria was gone but she knew her better than that. Her mother emphasized how much she loved her and much more before Aria left. She even kissed her forehead goodbye and Aria knew that when she came home later, her mother would not be there. Despite her mother being the one who thought she would develop into the monster she was born to be, she let her know that her life would not be possible if it were not for her and her husband. Whether it made her stay longer or not, Aria didn't know, but it was worth a shot.

Aria grabbed her bag and made trek to where Loki was waiting under the tree.

 

Loki tried to make Thor leave but he insisted on meeting the girl who had made his brother sneak around more than usual, since Thor could very rarely tell when his brother was a double.

“How do I look?” Thor asked, looking down at himself and flattening his long blonde hair, the complete opposite from Loki’s. Loki looked over at him for a split second then back to the path Aria should’ve been showing up on at any moment.

“Dapper as usual, brother.” He said without thought.

Thor looked at the everlasting mix of green, black and gold in his brother's attire. “And you think you look any better?”

Loki looked over, “What? I was being sincere.” He smiled.

“You are incapable of sincerity.” Thor retorted.

Loki crossed his arms, “Are you here to insult me? If so, this would be a good time to leave-”

“No, no, no, brother. I’m merely here to see what twisted soul has the likes of you.”

Seconds later as the two stared each other down, silently challenging the other, Aria walked up and slowed her pace as she saw the other royal. After seeing Thor’s eyes shift, no longer challenging him, Loki turned around seeing Aria.

He walked up to her, “I tried to get him to leave but he-”

“It’s fine, Loki.” she smiled, making eye contact with the blonde man. She rounded his body and slightly bowed, Thor took her hand and lightly placed a kiss on it before letting it go and man did it make Loki’s blood boil. Unintentionally, of course. It was just the way to greet a woman upon first meeting especially since he was a royal.

“And today is the day I learn not to underestimate my brother. What might your name be, miss?”

“Aria. I’ve heard so much about you.” She smiled kindly. 

Thor kept an eye on Loki, “I wish I could say the same,” He looked back down at her and she just smiled, noticing the slight challenges. 

“That’s alright. Will you be joining us today?” 

Loki stepped forward, “No.”

“Yes,” Thor answered at the same time.

The two looked at each other.

“Yes?”

“No.”

Aria kept her eyes trained on the amusing interaction and laughed a little to herself. “I’ll take that as a half day.” Thor smiled as if he had won a certificate and started to walk. Aria stayed back, seeing a strand of Loki’s black hair flop in front of his ear. She pushed it back and watched as the minor anger left Loki’s system.

“One day won’t hurt, Loki.”

He looked down at her a let a small smile play on his small lips. “Let’s hope not.”

Together they walked side by side, allowing their hands to brush every now and again as Thor flooded her with questions.

“How old are you?” _It's rude to ask a woman such a question but if you must know, I’m six hundred and eighty-three, two years younger than Loki._ To translate, in terms of looks, the early twenties in Midgardian years. Of course for Asgardians, they look their same age for hundreds of years.

“What is your power?” _Nothing I’m aware of yet_. “Loki’s sorcery makes him who he is, tricks and all. Mother taught him everything he knows. But… I’m sure you knew that already.”

“How long have you been sneaking around with Loki?” _I wouldn't say sneaking but to answer your question, eleven months and fourteen days._

“Are you two, like...” He looked back at Loki who was basically like a shadow and then back to me. “...courting?” _Yes._

He leaned down in a whisper, “Do your parents know?” _Yes._

Thor then proceeded to ask about Aria’s parents and when it was revealed that her father had passed just hours before they’d met, he stopped in his tracks, as did Loki.

“Why didn't you say anything? We could have met another day-” Loki rambled in shock.

“No, no need. We knew it was going to happen so we’ve had time to prepare.” Aria didn't necessarily lie since they knew it was going to happen but if she said she was completely destroyed or that her mother was prepared, that would be a lie. Aria zoned out for a moment, remembering her real mother go through the secret passages through the realms to Asgard and knocking on a door to hand her small bundle. “Please. Take her. She is of no danger to you. I can assure that.” They accepted and due to Aria’s connection to mother, heard her screams from Jotunheim even as she was on Asgard. 

“Aria,” Loki said, noticing her zone out. “Aria.” She blinked and looked between the two. “Are you alright?”

Aria made a smile spread on her features, “Of course. Shall we?” With that she turned and walked, leaving Thor and Loki to watch.

“I like her,” Thor smiled before following his new best friend. Thor continued with more questions, not leaving much room for Loki to say anything and Aria took notice in the tricksters scolding look towards his brother.

“Would you excuse me for a moment?” Aria slowed her pace and Loki tried to shift his physical appearance before Aria noticed but she was on the road to calling him out on it. “If you clench your jaw any harder you might crack a few teeth.”

Loki looked down at her as she looped her hands around his arm.

“I can ask him to leave if you’d like…” Aria kept her voice low, watching the prince in front of them smile at passerbyers and the others bow slightly, bowing slightly to Loki only if he caught their eye.

“I would want nothing more than for him to leave but trust me, if he doesn’t have this time with you now, all the questions he’s asking you, he’d be asking me without break.” He looked down smiling at the girl he had given his heart to.

Aria smiled at him before letting go and catching up to Thor ahead. 

 

Hours later, when Loki and Aria were roaming the streets alone, she noticed the darkness of her home and bit her lip. Loki looked over and up to meet where she looked. “What’s wrong, love?”

“I’m afraid if I go in there, my mother will be gone, too.”

“Was she ill as well?”

“In a way, yes. When my father grew ill, it was like I was losing them both slowly. Him to sickness, and her to heartbreak.” Aria tore her gaze from the windows and looked at Loki.

“I’m sure she wouldn’t leave you…” He said, turning his attention to her.

“Nevermind me. She loved her husband more than air itself, I would be no reason to hold her back from seeing him again.” Aria held herself and slowed up the steps touching the handle. She closed eyes, almost pressing her forehead to the door before looking back. “Do you want to come in?” She tried.

It was only once that Loki had seen anything but happiness on her face and anything else made his blood boil. Aria waited at the door and Loki stood with his hands behind his back as he usually did from royal protocol he practically had engraved in the way he carried himself.

He nodded softly before following her. Inside, Aria placed her bag on a hook to her right and walked into the kitchen ahead. She breathed a sigh of relief when she caught sight of a candlelight but when a letter sat tent next to the source of light she practically rushed to it.

Aria looked over at Loki who stood by the frame of the kitchen and she opened the letter.

 

_My precious flower,_

_by the time you read this, Margret and I will be gone. You were a wonder in our lives and a true gift from the gods._

_While you weren't my blood daughter, I wouldn't have given the title to anyone else or traded you for anything. Your ability to care for others and talent in the arts truly amazed me to the very last second._

_While my wife thought much of you in a way I know you heard at night, I know you will not give in to the thoughts that she placed into your head about the Jotunheim. We are who we choose to be, flower. And I know you'll choose right._

_Protect your heart, flower. I know not to judge based on others whispers concerning the prince but I do ask that you be careful._

_The house is yours. Everything is yours. My heart is with you, Aria._

 

Aria closed the letter after reading it and held it to her chest as an unforgiving tear slipped from her eye.

Loki thought of the love her parents gave that he had only wished he truly had in his own home. While he had the love he aspired at home, it was never what Thor had. Nor would it ever be. But he was never selfish with Aria, especially with emotions. He pushed himself off the frame and held her in his arms until she let go of him. 

"Loki, I-” He tried to find her eyes and she felt her fingers freeze over, fear playing horrendously in her mind. “I- I shouldn't have asked you to come in. I'm sorry. You could get in trouble with the king and-”

“No. Aria, I'm here for you. I don't care about anything else right now.” another tear fell from the corner of her eye and she felt the warmth from her body circulate back into her hands. She looked down at her face, not wanting Loki to see her this way anymore than he already had. 

Loki leaned down trying to find her eyes. “Aria,”

The thoughts swirled in her head. She could blurt it out. _I'm a frost giant!_ But how to tell him? How to break it down to him? Make him understand. That was something she had thought about since the day they met. Would he have her killed? Would he still like her after? She couldn't do it. She needed to push him away before he was the one who physically got hurt.

“You don't want me, Loki.” She turned away, not wanting things to go further than they already had. Emotions she had never truly tapped into came flooding out, sadness, rage, anger, hate all began to consumer her. 

Loki walked around her trying to bring her to look at him but she shielded herself from him. “What are you talking about? Of course, I want you, Aria.”

“I'm not- Loki, I'm sorry.”

“Aria, darling, you’re worrying me. Please talk.”

Aria started to cry. She was torn. Asgard would hate her for what she was. Loki would hate her. No one would care about the person they got to know, the one Aria convinced her true self to be. But she knew better. She was a monster. Monsters don't get the guy, or the happily ever after, and here she was posing as one of them just to one day kill them all. She needed to find something else to push him away with, she couldn't selfishly go on borrowed time with a happily after that wasn't her own. 

She grew into hysteria as she started, “I’m a no one, Loki. You deserve someone who isn't going to drag you into the villages only to be stared at, someone who isn't a commoner. I haven't done anything but drag you away from your duties and- “

“Aria stop.”

“-I’m not someone you should be spending your time with. Let alone being the reason you sneak away from your family. You deserve someone you’re allowed to show off. Just- just go, Loki.”

What she meant was true. Not needing to reveal herself, she spoke the truth not lying one second as if she couldn’t bring herself to. She never could lie to him. It felt wrong to.

Aria turned to walk away from him and started to leave the kitchen, leaving Loki to himself as he stood in shock, almost upset she felt that way. The person before him who he had every intention of keeping felt like nothing and how to respond to it was indecipherable to him.

And in dwelling on it, she almost slipped through his fingers.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Loki said before she should walk out of the kitchen entirely. Aria stopped dead in her tracks. She was going to walk again and leave him be as her heart broke but she was right. He did deserve better and she couldn't be selfish. She started to walk away again. 

“I can’t do that because I love you, Aria.”

Her breath hitched in her throat as she stopped again. “Take it back,” She said softly, not turning around.

“I can’t do that either.”

She turned around as another tear slipped and through tear blurred eyes, saw the prince smiling like a child as he walked up to her. Loki placed his hand under her ear, caressing her cheek with his thumb. Before she could let herself fall with her heart, her mind knocked on her front door. She pushed him off of her, "I can't, Loki. I can't do this. Don't make this harder than it needs to be." 

He grabbed her face and made her look him in the eye, “I _can’t_ go, Aria. I’ve loved you since the night we met. I spend all night dreaming about you. You’re what I look forward to seeing throughout the week and what everyone else thinks? I don't care. You are someone to me. Someone I love. And I can't just let that go. I can't let _you_ go."

Aria let the tears fall freely without thought of pushing them away because Loki helped himself to wipe them with his thumbs.

Well now she fell with her heart and there was no way around it. 

“Are you sure?” was the only thing Aria was able to say in the spur of the moment.

Loki chuckled softly, “Yes, I’m sure.”

Aria sighed softly, no longer feeling any tears falling and she leaned in for a passionate kiss, knowing she now felt with all her heart and nothing more when it came to him. Seconds later she pulled away and returned the statement. “I love you, too, Loki.”

The two kissed again until it led to more which, now that Aria was thinking about it, was rash and poorly timed... but she wouldn't have wanted it any differently. Well, maybe without starting it out with crying. 

As the two laid there, Aria to Loki's bare, well-built, minorly-pale chest, Aria felt her confession crawling up her throat. But thankfully, before she was able to let it roll off her tongue, Loki's hand no longer rubbing her arm and looking down at her made her thoughts shift instantly as if they were never there. 

He pressed his lips to her forehead, "I got you something."

"What?" Aria asked as he pulled away. 

Loki waved his hand in the air and with a bright white light out of nowhere, a medium white round hoop wounded with a loose web of light brown yarn throughout the middle like a spiderweb with white crystal beads and white feathers hanging from the remaining twine. As the object dangled, the light from the night shone through the window and made the feathers gloss a beautiful iridescence. He handed it to her and watched as she admired its beauty. 

"It's called a dreamcatcher. In another realm, they believe that the evil in their dreams is captured in the web and in the morning sun they will disappear. They also believe the dream catcher holds the destiny of the future which neither of us has any idea about." he smiled softly as he watched her.

Aria slipped out of the bed, taking a set of sheets with her and hung it on the pole high above her where the curtains huddling her bed hung. "Well, whatever compelled them to believe in such a thing, I admire it." 

"And I, you." 

Aria looked down to see Loki looking at her instead of the dreamcatcher that had captured her attention. She laughed softly, laying back in the bed with 

"You probably have to go..." Aria dragged.

Loki chuckled under her, "No need to fret, love. As of this moment, I'm walking a load of books to my room." 

"Tricky, tricky, man." Aria laughed, soon falling asleep together for the first time with indeed, no bad dreams.


	4. Chapter 4

**Mid Spring**

Aria noticed Loki and Thor’s off behavior two days later but had not said anything about it to either of them. Thor always held her eye as if he had something to say and Loki had listened to anything Aria said as if he had turned into a completely less annoying version of himself, because he couldn't help himself. Loki didn't speak much after that night. Weeks passed and the only thing he had really said to his brother was something that implied lying and trust. Trust. That was a funny word to Loki. Always had been. And who was he to imply such a thing? He was known for his trust breaking. He had no right to feel this way but then again, she was the start.

The more Loki was around, the more Aria grew used to it, no longer on edge she felt. His presence was merely another Asgardian to her... mainly because she refused to put anymore thought into him being there. 

Aria walked up to the tent where Heimdall stood in front of children seated on the floor as he taught them currency as Aria had taught Heimdall. She waved him over and he stopped teaching, “Excuse me for a moment.” He said to the children before walking towards the opening.

“Is everything alright?” He asked.

Aria smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder, “Yes, of course. I came to inform you that I’m stepping out for a few hours. Will you be alright on your own here?” She looked over at the children talking amongst themselves than to the rest of the camp where four Loki’s roamed.

“No need to worry. Enjoy your time out.” Heimdall assured. “Thank you.”

She looked over at the kids again as they started to get louder, “Try not to destroy the place while I’m gone.” She smiled at the man.

“No promises.”

Aria zipped up her red leather jacket and walked away from the camp until she could barely hear people talking and laughing in the distance. She took out the two-finger ring from her jacket pocket and put it on her left hand. She outstretched her hands and rotated the left hand in a clockwise motion. Sparks appeared out of thin air and rapidly moved continuously in a circular motion. On the other side, a SHIELD tech room appeared on the other side and Aria walked through, closing the portal behind her.

Before she knew it, nine SHIELD agents, including Maria Hill and Avenger Natasha Romanoff stood with their guns drawn and pointed at her. Aria put her hands up, “Am I early?” once the agents all realized who she was, they put their guns away and carried on as if nothing ever happened. She breathed a small sigh of relief even though she knew they weren't going to hurt her. Natasha and Maria walked up to her and each hugged briefly.

“Sorry about that. We’re not used to the new look.” Maria smiled, escorting the other two to an empty meeting room where multiple filed laid on the table.

Natasha put a hand around Aria, smiling. “Did hammer boy make it to you alright?”

Aria looked over at her, squinting. “Not funny, Natasha. I specifically asked to remain dead and you send me what’s left of the Asgardian population.”

Natasha let her hand drop as they sat around the table.

“Well, I thought since you were in a disguise that it wouldn't bother you. Do they even know who you really are?” While Natasha made a valid point, she couldn't help but still feel like she shouldn't have given them to her.

Aria sighed, “No, they think I’m Elizabeth. Except for Thor and another.” Aria looked at Natasha more, all of a sudden noticing a dramatic change. “Your hair is blonde. And short. When did you do that?”

“A week ago. You like?”

Aria nodded, "Yeah, reminds me of someone I've seen before..." She pondered playfully as she twirled her blonde hair, making Natasha laugh softly and roll her eyes playfully.

“Well back to this disguise discussion, there shouldn't be any problems really in terms of them knowing you. The only Asgardian we'd have a problem with is Thor's psycho brother.”

Aria stayed quiet and even though she didn't know about the attack on New York lead by none other than Loki himself, the mere fact that she knew he was someone they had a problem with, she couldn't help but feel guilty, knowing Thor only had one brother, and knowing he was here. And her sinking demeanor showed it. 

Both agents exchanged looks and Natasha leaned onto the table and towards Aria. “Should we be worried?” 

Aria looked up and put her hands up, “Nonono. He's a thick skull but he's been helping out. Honestly."

Both let out a breath of relief. Maria turned in her chair slightly, letting her brown ponytail shake. "Will you let us know if- when, he seems... out of character?” 

Aria didn't let herself show her hesitation at what they might have really meant but the anger she had once felt for him sparked subtly in her subconscious as she nodded. 

Knowing each other for over ten years, the one thing Aria never truly discussed was Asgard. Yes, she had to give background information, but other than saying what a hell her life had become, and just that, she only ever talked about the scenery. Since it was supposedly the only good thing there to talk about other than the family she refused to discuss.

“You didn't know about him on Asgard?" Natasha asked, confused. "I would think he was a sick guy there too."

"Well he was- is royalty. So, everyone knew him." Aria responded plainly, shrugging softly and fiddling with her fingers. . 

Natasha watched Aria's eyes shift and her body language as she fiddled with her fingers and shifted in her seat. Natasha looked at her more intently, the small light bulb in her head going off. "Oh my god. You  _knew_ him."

Aria bit down on her jaw, unable to say otherwise especially since these people could read anyone like an open book. But her subconscious sparked again. 

"I came to discuss proper placement for the Asgardians." Aria snapped, but Natasha was too intrigued with how such a good person could not kill Loki from his pure existence to take Aria seriously from her slight demeanor shift.

"What will you do if he finds out?” Natasha asked, looking between the two in the room.

“He won’t.” She said forcefully.

“Aria-” Maria tried.

“I said he won’t.” Aria’s eyes had flashed a bright red and the temperature in the room shifted to almost dangerously cold temperatures and in a split second, Aria realized what she was doing and closed her eyes instantly, turning them back to their icy blue color and returning the room to its normal state. She shifted in her seat, swallowing harshly as if it would drown whatever it was that was about to come out. “I came to discuss proper placement for the Asgardians.”

Maria and Natasha looked at her with a sense of shock before Maria cleared her throat before looking down at her tablet and sliding upwards so a map could be projected over the table. “Okay. These locations are the least busy in terms of population and crime.”

 

**Meanwhile**

Back in the camp, Loki had been concerned about the lack of Aria’s presence and when he couldn't find her anywhere the thought that Thor told her of his knowledge and made her flee infested his mind. He stormed into the cottage where Thor was helping himself to a sandwich on the kitchens island as he and Heimdall, who was seated at the kitchen table, right side to the window, looked out the window to monitor the camp.

“Where is she?” Loki asked.

Heimdall turned his head from his gaze out the window and stood from his seat, crossing his arms. “To what does it concern you, Loki?”

Loki caught his brothers eye and anger boiled through him. He pointed at Heimdall, “Does he know?”

Thor smacked the crumbs off his hands and tore away from Loki’s piercing stare. Thor cleared his throat after he swallowed a chunk of his meaty sub, “Heimdall has always known...”

“Why you-” Loki flung his arms to the sides and magically made his blades appear in each hand as he charged at Heimdall. Loki swiped his weapons at Heimdall and they exchanged hits but before Thor could break the two away from each other, Loki had left a nice slash across Heimdall’s cheek, making him bleed. 

Thor pushed his brother back, holding a single hand to his chest as he yelled at him. “What’s done is done, Loki! This childish nonsense ends here! Go get some air before you do something else stupid.”

Loki slowly fell from the high of adrenaline and looked into Thor’s eye. “This is low, brother. Even for you.”

At one of the many SHIELD bases, the three women had migrated from their seats to standing and hovering the table as the map had been moved to hover the table. Aria looked at the two agents as she pointed at the map. “Scattering them throughout Europe might be our best bet.”

Natasha zoomed out, “Okay and the western region of the United States is good too?”

Maria wrote down the information as they exchanged it and she chimed in, “Yeah. Living conditions aren’t too difficult to adjust to there.”

Aria stood straight as the lights of the room turned back on and the hologram was no longer present.

Natasha clapped once, “All right. Well just let me know when they’re ready for transport and they’ll be out of your hair in no time.”

They all walked out of the room, strolling the halls. “Will do. They’re just about ready so you should see me again soon.” The three separated and as the two agents went to walk away, Aria stopped Natasha from leaving. “I didn't know if you wanted to know this but, Bruce Banner is back.”

“What?”

“Banner. He came with them. I haven’t talked to him much but he’s been helping out and, I don't know, I just thought you should know.” Natasha nodded while hiding her emotions as usual and both women parted.

Aria opened a portal and closed it as one of the scientists passed by. She glanced up at the camera on the ceiling and swiped her finger across the air where no one would know it was her and making the camera freeze over with ice as she walked after the agent and pushed him up against the wall. She covered his mouth and she put a finger over her lips. His brown eyes, no longer of fear, flashed recognition and he nodded.

She let her hand fall. “Any word on the memory erasing device?” She asked the man.

He shook his head, “No. I’m sorry, that’s just not something we can make in just a few weeks. That kind of work takes time.”

Aria grew frustrated and as if something took over her for the second time that day, she gripped his throat and held it against the wall as he struggled. “Then it would be in your best interest to act as if time is the only thing you don't have, agent Hofferman.” She paid no mind to the ice on her fingers going up her forearm, or the fact that the same thing was happening to the man’s dark neck and in the gloss of his eyes she saw the glowing redness of her own.

She let go of him and looked down at her hands as the man grew into a coughing fit. “I- I’m sorry.” She said softly. The man, once done with catching his breath, looked at her angrily then melted into sadness. “I'm doing all I can.”

"I know. I know. I- I'm sorry." In a swift movement, she went through another portal and melted the frost on the surveillance camera. Coming out on the other side of the portal, Aria fell to her knees and made a spot of snow appear on the grass. She scooped up some before applying it to her face.  _Control it. You can do this._ felling her heart rate rise significantly, she applied more snow into her hands, pressing it to her face and feeling weak as a whole in fear she was growing in panic. In the distance, she saw a man siting on the grass not too far from the camp. Needing to distract herself, she walked over. 

There sat Heimdall, breathing calmly and looking a bit tense. He turned and smiled softly when he saw Aria beside him. “Ah, you’re back. How was your trip?” 

“We’ve secured locations.” she responded plainly, still spooked about what happened just seconds ago.

“Did it go smoothly?” he asked, noticing the bluntness in her voice.

She made no eye contact as she stared at the camp. “As can be.” She looked down, seeing Heimdall watching her and caught sight of a deep gash on his cheek.

“What happened to your cheek?” She asked, suddenly no longer affected by her out out of character acts.

“Nothing to worry about.” Heimdall waved off, crossing his arms.

“Does it hurt?” She asked.

“As much as I let it.”

 

The sun was on its final minutes as Aria stood side by side with Thor on the porch. He broke the silence they had placed themselves in. “I fear we are assimilating our people.”

Aria sighed, “It’s unfortunate to say, but we are. I would keep them here, but if anyone were to threat us, they'd have the advantage to destroy us all at once.”

Thor looked at her forcefully, “I wouldn’t allow such a thing.”

She shook her head, “I know you wouldn't, but, separation is the best thing to ensure their safety.” Silence fell over the two again and in remembering that Elizabeth was not Elizabeth, but instead, his friend who he had missed dearly, he had questions.

“How did you do it? Start over?”

Aria looked briefly at him before looking back out at the camp. “I had been in many realms. I just never spoke about my past. I couldn't lie to people I didn't know so I kept to myself. After I decided that Earth would be my last stop, I had convinced myself that what happened never did, that my life was always elsewhere. The disguise made it seem so final, that what I convinced myself would seem real. Sadly, I was okay with it.”

Thor thought about apologizing for the way things were left off on their end, but it wasn't him who needed to apologize. He uncrossed his arms and spoke softly, “Aria... about what happened, I swear I didn't know-”

“I don’t see any Loki’s working.” She interrupted him, not wanting to get into it.

Thor cleared his throat, and recrossed his arms over his chest. “He’s taking a break. The people are relaxing, getting ready for bed actually.”

Aria bit the inside of her lip, “We should all. It seems to have been a long day.”

 

**Asgard, 430 years ago**

Loki’s mother walked over to Loki’s room before his training to brush up on some Asgardian magic that she had been teaching him, but also to ask about the girl he thought he could hide from her. She knocked and seconds later, the door opened and her sons beautiful smile laid behind it.

“Hello, mother.” Loki smiled.

“Loki,” Frigga smiled back as she walked into the room.

“Are you ready for your lesson?” She asked. Loki closed the door and followed his mother to his bed where she placed the books in her hands on. He nodded and grabbed one of the books. She smiled and gently grabbed the book from him. “Not yet, Loki.”

“What is it mother? You know father doesn’t like when I’m late. I can’t be late.”

“I know. I just need to know something. Will you be honest with me?” Loki clenched his jaw, subconsciously knowing this was about Aria. It had to be. Frigga placed one of her hands over Loki’s. “Who is the girl you’ve been seeing?” She smiled almost teenage like.

“Mother,” Loki laughed, standing up from the bed and lightly pacing. “Oh mother. She’s- she’s wonderful. I cannot begin to fathom her beauty into words. No, forget her beauty. Just- no, I can’t forget her beauty, she as a whole is amazing.”

Frigga smiled, standing up from the bed and feeling a warmth in her heart for her son. “What’s her name?”

Loki’s smile grew, “Aria.”

“Tell me everything.”

 

Later on that day Aria had a line of customers buying her art left and right. Twenty years on Asgard flew by and to a human, it was only four years, which, felt like nothing on Asgard. In that time, Aria had taken over her adoptive parents businesses and clashed them into one. She sold her mothers jewelry, her fathers art (minus her favorites), and even things around the house that she would never use. She didn't spend much time in the house, and the friends of her adoptive parents were glad to see her taking over. It had been a busy day to say the least. She had just finished with her second to last customer who wanted her gold and blue piece, the one she had painted the night after sharing her first kiss with Loki. It was a personal favorite and the middle aged woman paid good money for it since it was one of the top shelf paintings.

When the woman left, Aria scrambled to put more art on the shelves before tending to the last customer. “If it isn’t bold of me to say, miss, you look lovely in that dress.” Aria didn't even have to shoo the flirtatious customer away since she knew who it was by voice. A smile plastered on her lips as she turned around seeing Loki in his usual stance with hands behind his back. Loki’s eyes smiled as he did and she placed her elbows onto the wooden counter.

“Why thank you, your highness. But, I would refrain from such bold statements. I should mention I'm courting with someone.” Aria said playfully.

Loki flicked an eyebrow as he leaned in, “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

Aria rolled her eyes as she pushed him away from the counter. She turned around and gestured at the art and small trinkets since she had recently sold out on her mothers jewelry. “See anything you like, valuable customer?” She asked.

Loki rubbed his nonexistent facial hair and looked at every item in the stand before speaking. “Hmm, while they’re all beautiful, I’d like…” he pointed at Aria, “That one.” Aria playfully rolled her eyes and Loki leaned his elbows on the counter. “Are you off of work yet?” He asked.

“Yes, I am. You were supposed to be the last customer, but I didn't know it was you, obviously.” As she spoke, she put items away and placed the drapes over the stand, and locking a chain around it. She placed the key into her bag and Loki stood off, watching her.

“I have something to tell you.” Loki smiled after Aria greeted him with a hug.

“What?” She asked.

“Well, I have two somethings... Lets walk,” he insisted. Loki’s smile never faded and it only made Aria’s anticipation skyrocket as they walked. Loki waited until there were no more people walking towards them before turning to her.

Loki took in a deep breath before speaking quickly. “You know how your into politics and government and whatnot?”

Aria nodded, not getting where he was going.

“Well I may have, I don't know, gotten you a seat in the Court of Asgard…”

Aria’s smile grew on her face and she hugged Loki with all her might. The Court of Asgard. Like her real mother, she shared the qualities of being the goddess of Justice and vengeance since she was, except her size, her mother in every way she knew. Aria dreamed of being in the Court to exercise that power. She thought it would be something to not only make Asgard better, but to be close to her mother.

Aria released Loki’s body and couldn’t contain her excitement. “How?!” She yelled, still in surprise.

“Well, you can thank my mother when you see her,” Loki smiled.

Aria held onto his forearms, “The queen?! She knows about me? You told her about me.” Aria’s tone turned more serious, almost terrified as she spoke.

It was one thing for his brother to know who she was but someone who was of true authority, who could spell her into speaking the full truth, was terrifying. What if she put a truth serum in her drink? What would she say? Would she reveal the fact that she was of enemy blood? Aria felt uneasy as Loki smiled and explained that his mother couldn’t wait to meet her.

“She promised not to tell father. You can start whenever you’re ready,” Loki assured, making Aria’s shoulders fall after its tencious feeling. “Shall we?” He said with a smile, as he gestured to the path ahead. Aria mirrored his expression and together they walked.

 

Days later, Aria was inducted into the Court of Asgard, in charge of the determination of charges for a law broken, whether it be fair or not and, few other things that allowed a sort of authority but none above nor near the King’s. Aria and the King had a very peculiar relationship, one that you would not call a friendly one in any way, shape, or form, too difficult to describe because honestly, there was no way _to_ describe it. For other members of the Court, they also saw this interaction to be nowhere near their kind and because everyone on Asgard stayed in their respective places, other than Thor and Frigga who loved to pry Loki about Aria, they said nothing.

Thor and Aria had become the best of friends. On the rare days where time was spent doing nothing on both ends, and if Loki was busy in that time, the two would stroll in the village and do nothing but laugh and eat together to get away from the hassle of castle life.

Frigga also enjoyed Aria’s company. She would request her presence to talk about a book or new spell she had been working on and all while making it seem as if Aria was solely friends with the queen and in no way in a relationship with their youngest son.

On occasion, Loki and Aria would sneak off and talk, or more, and when they had enough leisure time, they would play pranks on Thor (under Loki’s initiative and favor of course). 

Aria loved what she did. Never had she felt more herself. But never had she felt more like a fraud. Only in the darkness of her quarters would she exercise that feeling and even though Loki suspected an uneasiness, he always made it his priority to make her smile.

But Loki should've known better then to bring her into the palace. Almost 300 years of secrecy was bound to bite them in the ass. And it was only inevitable that his father would find out about them…

While Aria was out in the villages with Thor, needing the familiarity of the sand colored streets, Loki was just finishing up a lesson with his mother as he passed a room where his father sat.

“Loki, my son, come here,” Odin called out as Loki had sworn he carefully went passed the room without being detected. Instantly, his stomach dropped to his feet, as it usually did for the past 300 years every time Odin requested his presence, and Loki backed up and faced the inside of the room before entering.

“Yes, father?” He asked with a subtle shake in his voice. Odin said nothing as Loki walked in. Instead, he stood and asked for a moment alone, making the guards in his room leave, closing the door behind them. Odin, old and grey, had a gold eyepatch over his right eye after a battle with the Jotunheim so many years ago. He was intimidating despite his rounder shape and few inch shortness to his sons. He cared about his kingdom, and would do anything for it. Anything.

Odin looked down at his hands before straightening up his figure and clearing his throat. “My son, you know I always believed I knew everything in and about my kingdom. From the children running around, to the petty wounds our soldiers would get in combat training.”

Loki kept himself calm and poised. At least on the outside.

“That was until I met Councilman Aria,” Odin said plainly, turning around to look for a reaction from Loki and when not seeing one, continuing. “You and Councilman Aria are friends, no?” He asked, not bothering to turn his head.

“Yes, sir.” Loki stated, almost scratching at his hands behind his back.

“Might I dare say, more?” Odin interrogated. “Actually, don’t answer that.”

Loki’s heart clenched as he was going to say something and instead of the feeling releasing, it held on tighter.

“She is distracting you my son. You mess up during training, you’re too clouded in the mind to improve-”

“Father, please. My love, she- If you just took the time-”

Odin turned to face him, “Love? Loki Odinson, I will not have you be taken with the likes of a possible intruder and allow you to abandon your duties to run off with some girl you “love”. Your place is here, and one day it will be beside your brother as he rules as Asgard’s king. I need you to remain strong for the sake of the protection of the kingdom. I will not have you worrying about one to the many.”

Loki clenched his jaw, angry. Not only did he shun him for loving Aria and saying she was his weakness, he mentioned Thor’s birthright place as Asgard’s king. This was one of the many reasons Loki had met Aria the night he did. He told her, within a year of knowing her, his reasoning for “needing to get away” that night, and this was exactly it. his brother. The underlying favoritism he received. Loki had always been different. Never seen the same as his brother. Loki was more interested in Asgardian witchcraft and sorcery while Thor was voluntarily first in line for anything combat related which Loki noticed in his father's eye that he had favored the eldest. And while Loki loved his brother, it was hard to when a fit of jealousy begun to stream itself through Loki’s bloodstream. Even as his brother was out with Aria, he had made sure to monitor from a distance to make sure Thor tried nothing and that Aria didn’t fall for the other as he had feared countless times before.

Loki always wanted to do right by his father. Always. He was eager for his father appreciation so even now, with the love of his life at risk of abandonment, he still did, slowly altering Loki’s personality for the worse.

With distaste in his voice, Loki practically spoke through his teeth, “What would you have me do...?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Last day of Spring**

After months of work, the Asgardians were all knowledgeable of the new world they now called home and though she wanted no business with them at first, the Asgardian in her had let them grow on her the longer they were around.

Aria stood over the kitchen island, looking at a map she had annotated to show every place the people were to live in. She switched them around. A lot. She would sort them to her liking, then realized that she didn't like it, then would switch and compromise again only to do the same thing over and over.

Loki stood and watched for a few seconds before walking in, hands behind his back. “Looks like you could use a hand.”

Aria kept her eyes and hands on the counter as she recognized the voice, coming closer. “No, thank you. I’m just looking over placement areas.”

“Then maybe I can be of assistance…” Loki said, rounding the island to stand beside her.

“Oh, no, that's ok-” Before Aria could retaliate anymore, Loki slid the map to be centered to his view, helping himself.

“Europe? Is it because of the accents?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Aria sighed, sliding the map back to its normal position in front of her. “I just want to make their transition as smooth as possible.”

Loki watched her as she switched the post-it notes around for the fifth time. “Was yours?” he asked, leaning slightly.

Aria paused, then resumed before registering it completely, “Nevermind me.”

Loki turned around and leaned on the island, crossing his arms. “It was never smooth for me.”

“Why would it be? You never left.” Aria practically scoffed as she smoothed the stickiness of the yellow post-it onto the map.

“On the contrary, love. After what happened, I was fed up with living in my brother’s shadow wanted to show my father I was capable of ruling same as he. That evidently didn't work out as I had hoped it would and I was to be in Asgardian prison till the end of my days but that a story for another time.”

Aria stood straight, looking at Loki for the first time that day, “My apologies, I assumed,” Then looked away, back to the map she thought of changing again.

Loki didn’t shrug, he kept his emotions underneath his thick skin as he usually did instead of using sass and insults to cover it up like he had been doing to Thor for the past few weeks.

After what happened over three-hundred years ago, Loki had changed for the worst. Not only affected by Aria’s disbandment, the realization of his father's favoritism, and new underlying mischief, had led him down a dangerous path. Driven by jealousy and no longer tempting heart, Loki interrupted his brother’s coronation for the throne of Asgard by secretly allowing Frost Giants from Jotunheim to invade Asgard. He also hyped his brother up to disobey their father’s orders to leave the Jotunheim situation alone, only to “accidentally” make the Jotunheim declare war on Asgard, which unintentionally got Thor banished to Earth for disobeying

Loki had later learned the reason for his father’s favoritism. Loki was adopted. Left to die on Jotunheim, Odin took the child to hopefully one day make peace with the Frost Giants and if you thought Loki was heartbroken and lost then, you couldn’t possibly imagine what it was like for him to have been lied to all his life and finally, he understood.

Loki remembered what he said to his father, “You know, it all makes sense now, why you favored Thor all these years because no matter how much you claim to love me, you could never have a frost giant sitting on the throne of Asgard!” He had loved Odin deeply, and as his calm voice turned into a yelling fit, his father started to fall into Odin sleep (a coma, if you would) and lead Loki to be the temporary King of Asgard.

Loki would not lift Thor’s exile despite his warrior friends request and even when his mother asked, he would not. He went to Thor, in an illusion of sorts, and told him their father had died instead of telling the truth and needless to say, Thor found out the truth, made it back to Asgard and fought his brother, only to have it be the first time Loki faked his death.

“No need to apologize. I should've known you didn't know considering you left some time ago.”

Aria took the post-it notes off completely and held them in her hand, “Right... So why not Europe?”

Loki turned his body to face Aria’s side, “Let me take you somewhere.”

“Let me work,” Aria responded instantly, placing the post-its down in yet another rearranged order.

“Fine… if you answer me one question,” Loki proposed.

A sigh left Aria’s lips as she stood up straight once again. “One and you're out of my hair?”

“If that is what you wish.”

“Fine.”

“What did you think of me when you lived on Asgard?”

Aria scoffed, shaking her head. “What's kind of-”

“I mean if you'd rather me stay and help map things out…”

“No, no, thank you,” Aria said quickly. She sighed before leaning on the counter opposite to Loki but not standing directly in front of him. “I thought you were a better layer of yourself than you let people see. The stories I would hear about you and Thor being idiots were some of my favorites and…” She sighed, “I sometimes wish… I wish I had never met Thor.”

Loki kept a neutral face but listened intently. “Is that all?”

“I-” Aria stopped herself, switching gears, “It is, yes.”

Loki nodded his head a little before tapping the island, “I best hold my end of the bargain then,” And walked away.

Aria watched Loki leave before repeating the same thing she had been doing with the post-its.

Loki marched over to a tent Thor had made his own with Heimdall and Banner lounging inside as was everyone else in their own tents since there was nothing more to do but wait for transport.

“Brother, I can't follow this any longer,” Loki spoke through his teeth as he flung the tent material so he could pass through.

“Follow what?” Thor asked carelessly as he looked at his short hair in the mirror.

Loki now stood next to Thor, “Hiding my knowledge of Aria.”

Thor stopped his movements and dropped his hand from his hair before turning to face his brother. “Loki, she is the only thing keeping us steady right now. Your attempts to rekindle a love that is no longer there will sidetrack her from getting our people safe.”

“Whoa, wait. Is there something I’m missing here? Who’s Aria?” Banner said from the other side of the room. Both Thor and Loki looked over at the man and Heimdall cut in before either could address him.

“He's right. She might not have the best reaction to your knowledge of her true identity and that could disrupt the peace.”

Loki looked over at Heimdall, flicking an eyebrow, “So you're telling me to just pretend that she isn't the one I'd been mourning for over 300 years?” He asked sarcastically as he stepped up to the man.

From behind him, Thor’s tone had shifted, “That's exactly what we’re telling you, Loki.” Loki turned around as his brother strode up to him, starting to bark. “What you did was your choice! No one told you to do it, no one begged you to! You did it on your own and your choices caused chaos on everyone's end. We need to make sure our people are safe. That should be your only concern.”

Loki stood there, ready to defend himself verbally, admitting his choices were not the best ones at the time but before he could, Heimdall rounded his body and the two stood in front of him. “He’s right, Loki. The amount of pain she went through was enough to mourn 12 galaxies. 12. When she came to me, she moved through the atmosphere like she had no soul. Like she was a shell of the person she used to be. Bringing that up would not be pretty.”

Loki’s eyes grew incredibly dark, “You? You helped plan her death?”

Before anyone could stop him, not even his own composure, Loki launched himself at Heimdall, who was blocking himself from Loki’s strikes as much as he could as they rolled on the ground, fighting. Heimdall got the upper hand and kicked Loki off, making Loki claw on the floor to stop him from continuously sliding and before, Loki could pounce at Heimdall again who was this time ready for a fight, Aria rushed in just as the two were about to fight again and stood between them.

“Loki! Outside, now!” Aria yelled, and the menacing darkness in Loki’s eyes remained as he burst out of the tent and walked to the back where the minor crowd that had formed outside could not stare. Aria smiled at them, “Everything is fine, everyone. Back to your tents please.” before noticing Loki’s disappearance. She rounded the tent and found him waiting there like a faux grenade. No threat, but fearful to see.

“What happened?” She asked breathlessly.

“Nothing,” Loki spat, looking at anything but her. Just then, she caught a glimpse of blood dripping down his left eyebrow and on his right cheekbone.

“Loki, you're bleeding,” She stepped towards him, trying to examine it and he put distance between them.

“I don't feel a thing.” Frustration ran through Aria and she clenched her jaw. “Fine.”

With that, Aria turned to leave and Loki hesitated to stop her before biting his tongue.

“Wait-” Loki found himself calling out, making Aria turn around, anger evident. “What?!”

Loki started to scramble his words, “I- I-”

Thor’s body coming in Loki’s sight made him scramble even more, almost saying her true name but when Thor realized what his brother was trying to do, he called out to him in a warning tone, “Loki.” He stretched.

Aria held a hand up, not even bothering to turn around, “No, I want to hear this.”

Loki switched eye contact between the two and had fought until clenching his own jaw, “It’s nothing important, go.” For a moment, Loki saw a hint of hurt in the green eyes that he thought mocked the alluring blue he knew laid underneath and in a second, her blonde hair was nowhere in sight.

“You were going to tell her!” Thor yelled in hushed tones.

Another flash of darkness devoured Loki’s eyes as he snapped his head to Thor’s angry expression. “What do you expect?! Aria was everything to me, everything! All I wanted was to be loved and it wasn’t until she was gone that I realized I had already had it!” Realization had struck in Loki that he had not only revealed that ending things with Aria was not his original thought, but the situation at hand had put him on a stage, naked.

Thor was at a loss for words at his brother's sudden emotion of something other than sass. His name was all he could get out before Loki stormed past him.

 

**Asgard 300 years ago**

There was an assembly, for all of Asgard. The court had new laws, configurations of old ones, and other announcements by the king. Rumors had spread that Loki had some announcements of his own and to Aria, everyone told her he was going to propose but she knew better than that. Loki wasn’t one for public declarations of love, and a proposal, according to him, that would only be special if done specially for her.

Aria was ready to tell him her secret. She no longer wanted to hide the biggest part of her from him. She knew the risks, she knew. But there was just a high of emotions that made her unable to think about it, maybe it was the rumor, maybe not.

Before the King made announcements, Loki walked up to Aria and took a hold of her hands, bringing her to the center stage.

“There is something I must tell you," He kept his eyes steady, resting on Aria’s face like everything was fine, but just briefly, the sorrow already building. “Yes?” The lightness in Aria’s voice made his features buckle just slightly before he spoke, the only betrayal of his grief.

Loki swallowed hard, looking at the audience to the left of him. “I can’t do this anymore…”

Aria’s smile slowly died as she laughed half-heartedly. “That's not funny, Loki. Come on. What is it really?” When his eyes stayed fixed on her own, her face drained of all color as if she had just seen a ghost. She turned her head, seeing the thousands of people in her wake and Loki felt a sudden coldness to her touch as he held her hands which she let drop once she noticed it’s cool touch. And instantly, Loki noticed her practically shrinking presence before his eyes, one of the many things he never wanted to witness, let alone cause, ever.

Loki looked briefly at his father behind him and Aria physically felt her heart start to rip maliciously down the middle as she put the pieces together. “Was any of it real?” She asked now looking at the floor, wanting nothing more than to freeze the whole place over and be the monster she truly was.

Loki almost broke.

Almost.

“Of course not. My father knew everyone in the kingdom… everyone except you. So, with my charm, he put me to work, wanting to know why.” Aria was quiet, holding herself and not daring to look into his eyes, but instead, watching the crowd he had decided to share this very private confession with.

No words could describe how she felt. None. Aria should’ve known from that night she found him in her spot that the new change was to lead to destruction. Not of the world around her, but of herself. And instead of listening to something telling her to walk away, she let herself be lead into a deep dark hole of loss and disparity.

She looked over at Thor, Odin, and Frigga, who just watched like everyone else in the Kingdom. Then she looked back at Loki, a mix lacing in her words. “You said you loved me. Odin didn't make you say it, he didn’t need to know me on a personal level. You could’ve walked away the second day.”

Loki wanted nothing more but to tell her it was a trick, that he was just joking, or to tell her the truth but he couldn't. He couldn't disappoint his father.

He needed her to say his name without distaste, without looking at him like everyone else in the kingdom did. He needed her to look at him as she did every day since their meeting, but he couldn’t bear to ask for that now.

Especially with what he was forcing himself to say next.

“You say that like it means anything. What fun would that have been to leave the second day? You were nothing more than a research project. Odin wanted to know everything about you to make sure you were who you said you were and nothing more. If you were anything other than you say you are, it would take time for you to tell me that. ”

Aria broke a little more inside- the pieces becoming shards and storm brewing within. For at that moment she'd seen him for the God of Mischief he really was. Aria was quiet as Loki stood there almost proudly but inside, he’d broken himself beyond the figurative maximum.

“You said you loved me and I took you at your word. And here I am learning none of it was real…” Aria angrily pushed a tear that had fallen onto her cheek and almost felt hysteria coming on. Loki had to catch himself from almost brushing it off himself.

Instead, he put on a cocky smile and leaned down to Aria’s level. “I’m sorry, love. Did you forget who I was?”

Under her breath, loud enough for only him to hear, she let her now darkened blue eyes pierce into his baby blue ones, said, “It would have been kinder to kill me, Loki,” and walked away.

Despite the amplification of their voices to the audience, Aria’s last words were truly only between the two and in that moment, the seeming finality of it made Loki numb. He looked over at his family and locked eyes with Thor who evidently wanted to rip him to shreds while his mother didn't dare look his way as Thor turned away and went after Aria. Their mother wiped off a tear that had fallen and looked at her son for a second before folding her hands in front of her.

Odin, on the other hand, nodded at his son's work.

“Aria! Wait, please!” Thor rushed in front of her and she had to forcefully wipe the river of tears that laid on her cheeks. She tried not to look at him but he tried to desperately to catch her eyes.

“Leave me alone, Thor.” She sniffled looking around at the walls, anywhere but him. “Aria, please. I had no idea, about any of this. You have to believe me.”

Aria stopped, feeling angry, and looked up at Thor. “Believe you? None of it was real, Thor. None of it! All I’ve ever done was believe this family and look where it’s gotten me! I’ve lost everything I care about! My parents are gone, I’m no longer in the Court, Loki-” She clenched her jaw, almost feeling her teeth break.

“Just- Go back to your life before I was in it.” She brushed past him and cried to her no longer existing heart's content.

Slowly, by almost groups, the people of Asgard left the gathering site and went home after the Kings announcements and whatnot. Once the site was empty, Loki walked back to his room without a word.

Once he was to himself, Loki thrashed through the room entirely. His bed posts were cut up with blade marks. The walls look like they had been through a wood shredder. Glass from the mirror he could no longer bear to look at himself in, covered the floor and he even got a few cuts on his hands as he continued to destroy.

Pounds against his door made him instantly use his powers to disguise his room and self to look as if nothing were damaged. Thor burst in and grabbed Loki by the collar of his shirt and armor, pinning him to the wall.

“Is everything a game to you, Loki?!” Thor barked.

“Father wanted something done and I did what you could never bring yourself to do,” Loki said simply.

Thor dropped him from his pin against the wall, “You lied to her. Father wouldn't do something like that.”

Loki added a smile and angered his brother more.

"What you did today was nothing more than another selfish act, Loki. You chose to end things with a lie and destroy the only real good thing in your life."

"What I did was a request, a job ordered by my Father, my King. She meant nothing to me." Loki leaned towards his brother, looking into his eyes with a proud menacing smile, “And I’d do it again.”

Thor almost smashed Loki’s skull into the wall but instead, held it in. Before he walked out, Thor looked into his brother's eyes. “There were a million ways you could have done that and as always, you chose the wrong way.”

When Loki was to himself again, he no longer felt able to hold the magic in his room. Slowly, the room morphed back to its disastrous state as he slid down the wall in his true form: bloody-knuckled and a mess, the complete opposite of who he had posed himself to be.

A broken man.

Loki noticed the snow that had fallen on the kingdom and though deemed odd, it got no more attention then the sound of his heart chipping and clanking on the floor of his chest. 

 

Hours later, in the night of Asgard, Aria walked up to Heimdall, the gatekeeper of the Bifrost bridge and friend upon introduction from Thor. Under her hoodie, her frosted forearms and hands almost revealed her power of the storm burdened on Asgard and before she peeled off her hood to reveal herself to him, she allowed it to disappear, no longer making active snowfall on Asgard.

“Aria,” He started in surprise. Since he was able to observe the gathering, he knew what happened, but didn’t expect Aria to show her face whatsoever. Not for a long time. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Aria folded her hands in front of her, “I have no right to ask you, but, I need a favor.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Last Night of Spring**

A body sat down next to Aria as she sat on the roof and she didn't even bat an eyelash in his direction, knowing who it was. Nothing more than the soft voices of the Asgardians below could be heard and slowly, one tent after the other, they went to sleep, making the sky darker and the stars brighter.

The two sat there in silence for hours, staring at the dancing lights as if they were taunting them. 

After leaving Loki with Thor, Aria had gone to Heimdall to check up on him. As she cleaned his injuries, she asked the reason for their fight and Heimdalls response was, “Just Loki being Loki.” but for some reason, a deep thought washed over her like a tsunami and Aria held her breath for a moment, slowly stopping her movements.

“Heimdall,” He hummed absentmindedly in response. “Does he know?”

Heimdall continued to look at the slightly red tinted water in the bowl beside him as if he had not heard her. This made her stop completely, hovering the damp rag over him and pulling away. An all too familiar feeling of hurt and betrayal sparked in Aria as she started to back away from Heimdall who had clenched his jaw and said nothing.

Even as Aria turned to leave, Heimdall wished he would have said something when she asked. The truth at least. But by the time her name could roll off his tongue, she was gone.

Back on the roof, Aria closed her eyes and sucked in a breath only to let it out slowly. “I spent hundreds of years running from my past, hundreds. I grew envious. I plotted against Asgard, against you. And even after all that planning, after all that rage substituted the loss and heartbreak I felt, I couldn’t do it. At the end of the day it would’ve changed absolutely nothing…”

She didn’t bother to look at him but he was all ears as in he were a child listening to a bedtime story. “How long have you known?” She asked finally, keeping her gaze at the distance ahead.

“Long enough,” Loki said plainly. Even now, as he sat beside Aria who knew of his knowledge, he didn't feel as if it were truly her. Not with her disguise. Elizabeth deserved nothing from him, but Aria, Aria was too pure for him to begin with. At least he thought so.

Another silence fell for a few minutes but suddenly, Loki began to speak out in the open. “I never wanted any of this to happen.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself.” Aria scoffed.

“But I do.”

“Don’t.”

“Aria, what I did- what I said, I didn't mean it. You have to know that. My father-” Loki was crossing a line, for both of them, but he needed to tell her the truth. Her call of his name didn't even stop him. “He thought you were making me weak. He wanted me to protect the kingdom as a whole and not just one. He wanted to make me understand that what he was doing was out of love to make me stronger and I was desperate. I should've known better than to think that because not only did he want me to hurt you, he wanted you nowhere in his sight which destroyed me in the process. Please, Aria. You have to believe me.”

Throughout the entirety of Loki’s “confession” Aria kept her gaze far from Loki, where the trees in between the hills swayed and reflected on the water as a focus from not bursting into tears out of the mere presence of him. But his last line made her snap her head towards him.

“Believe you. Believe you? You’re not even man enough to admit your tricks to me! The last thing I need is another lie! Especially surrounding the situation!”

Loki scrambled, moving towards her. “It wasn’t a trick! Loving you has never been a trick! I sought validity in the wrong places, and I was desperate for approval from a man who wasn’t even my real father! Please.”

Aria scoffed, now watching the man who had twisted her heart and burned it in a campfire. He not only said her name but said things that would be perfect to reel her back in. So she returned her gaze to the trees and reverted the topic as if it were the only thing she heard the entire time.

“Odinson turns out to be adopted,” She said in a daze. “Who would’ve thought?”

Loki sighed, realizing he hadn’t gotten through to her.

“Laufeyson...”

Aria’s eyes widened before turning towards Loki, “Laufey? The king of Jotunheim?” She had known nothing of Jotunheim except for what was taught on Asgard and minor first-hand accounts when she was born/ made. Loki gave a single nod and Aria let out a huff of irony.

“Of course you are,” She started sassily as she stood up and started to leave.

“I beg your pardon?” he turned, watching her in pure confusion as he stood up after her.

She turned around in a fit,  “So… what? You looked into helpless Elizabeth’s head since you didn’t know her, so who cared what you saw, right? But then realized she was the daughter of a frost giant goddess and happened to also be the girl who idiotically fell so deeply in love with you only to break her by telling her you used her for your fathers dirty work and decided to try and relate to her by saying you were also adopted? I’ve met manipulative people before but, wow, you will always hold that title of yours.”

Loki rounded her body to stop her from leaving and she huffed, surprised he was still even trying after that. “I admit looking into her- your head, was wrong but I swear to you that I what I say is true. Every single thing.”

Aria and Loki had a stare off, hers angry and his begging, before she rolled her eyes and sat back down, letting yet another silence fall onto the two.

For some reason, Loki felt as if he had the right to ask her questions, and so he did, but not as confidently as anything else he had said. “Were you going to tell me?”

A flash of anger at the previous thought ran though Aria’s blood but then she let it pass over as if, just like that, she was used to it. “It was going to be the day of, actually.”

She let her shoulders fall, pressing on the device behind her ear and speaking out into the open as she had been doing the majority of the night. “I felt out of place in my family on Asgard… and when I met you… I just- I felt like I was normal. You made me feel normal, Loki. You. But you also made me feel like the most worthless person in the universe...”

“And if I could take it back, I would. But I can’t. All I can ask now is for your understanding and forgiveness.”

“What then?” She asked, slight tear build-up in her eyes as she looked over at Loki. “What would you have me do after all of that?”

Loki looked into the eyes that he had missed dearly and flat-lined his lips before cupping Arias head into one of his hands and using his thumb to wipe away the tear that has slipped out, thankful for her allowing him to do so and kept his hand there. “I would give you all the time in the world to consider allowing me back into your life.”

Aria was ready to let herself fall off the cliff but then took a look at the rocks jutting out on the way down and reconsidered. She pulled herself away from his touch and turned away, “We can’t let this get in the way of keeping the Asgardians safe. When they’re out of the way, we are free to discuss this but until then,” She pressed the device, “you know nothing.”

“You can't ask that of me,” Loki almost chuckled, as they both stood.

“I just did.” She declared before ducking through the large window back into her room and leaving the man on the roof alone.

Loki took it upon himself to climb off the roof back to the ground but instead of entering the house again, he decided to take a stroll.

Aria watched from behind the white curtain as Loki walked into the field and stood to watch the trees dance for hours, thinking. Aria went to bed after seeing him just stand there and instead of sleeping, she was wide awake, tossing and turning.

She sat up from a microsleep that gave her a flash 300 years in the past in a nightmarish gasp and looked around, noticing the exploded layer of ice on the floor and walls illuminated and glimmering in the moonlight. She slid out of her bed, waving a hand to make it disappear then dropped her head into her hands.

“Get out of my head, Loki.” She said angrily under her breath, feeling hot tears falling and a sob accidentally following it. The whole night she spent pacing, sitting, thinking, hating, loving…

Aria caught a glimpse of the grey dreamcatcher that once again failed to do its job and scolded it, “I should’ve chosen a different one,” She said, probably hurting its feelings. She stood up, slowly making her way towards the curtain and drawing it, seeing Loki no longer standing in the distance but a note on the outside of the glass door now centered her attention.

She slid the door open to reach for the note and closed it before opening it.

_Gods know I don't deserve forgiveness, but you have to believe that what I said was the truth._

 

**The First Day of Summer**

The months had gone by slowly at first but now that the day was here, everyone had realized how rapidly the time truly went by. For Agent Hoffner at SHIELD, he could say that it was time that on his side because as of that morning, he could finally say that he had made a standard neuralyzer per Aria’s request. Only, he had to keep it under wraps and hand it from one agent to another without causing a breach of machinery.

Back in Norway, while Aria was occupied, Loki took it upon himself to look over the map out of boredom before Agent Romanoff came by. Not even five minutes later, in walked Agent Romanoff with an office box, looking for her.

Upon seeing Loki, she walked passed the kitchen and almost made it up the stairs before Loki began to speak out loud, “Elizabeth’s with the children in the last tent to the left. In case you were wondering…” Loki squinted playfully.

Without a word, Natasha stepped back down the few steps she climbed and started to walk outside before stopping, turning, and confronting Loki at the kitchen island.

“If you think we don’t have our eyes on you, we do. If you’re planning on compromising anything, it wouldn’t be wise of you to go through with.” With that, she walked off, going to the tent where Loki said “Elizabeth” would be.

“Natasha.” Banner said shockingly, standing up from painting with a table of kids and not noticing a brush of green on his forehead.

“Banner,” She let her lips curl up into a soft smile as she didn't let her shock of seeing him show. She looked around the tent, not seeing “Elizabeth” anywhere.

“Hey,” A soft voice said from behind Natasha. She turned around seeing the blonde bobbed woman.

“Great, just the person I was looking for. Well, I’ve got all of their ID’s, homes, and transportation.” Aria practically lit up as she lightly grabbed the office box in Natasha’s hands and leading her to the house where another table was waiting to have stuff organized on it. As she walked away, Natasha kept apace with her.

“Look, I would love to stay, but I have paperwork. SHIELD transports should be here any minute. Will you be fine here on your own?”

Aria waved her off, “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

Natasha kept her pace close. “I know you will. But, hey, hey. Wait a second,” Natasha stopped her. “What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing. Permission to leave?” Aria asked awaitingly, but the sarcasm was evident to Natasha.

“No. You’re acting strange.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

The two had a stare down before Aria huffed, “We’ll talk about it afterward.”

“Yes we will.” Natasha responded as Aria started to walk away and next thing you know, Natasha was on her jet, flying back to SHIELD headquarters.

Aria placed the box on the dinner table and opened it to allow her mind to be absorbed by the work ahead of her. She spotted a smaller box tied together in twine and she curiously opened it. Inside, a thick silver device about the size of a pen had five thumb scrolling settings that showed hours, days, weeks, months or years. Aria had instantly known it was the memory eraser from Agent Hoffman. But now she didn't know if she wanted to use it anymore. She had been thinking about both the night before and the device all day, it almost gave her a headache. 

Absorbed by the device she had longed for but was starting to regret, she didn't even realize the trickster standing at the island behind her.

“It may have been a while but I’m sure those are your ‘surprised’ shoulders,” Loki said from behind, making Aria scramble and hide the device in her jacket pocket before feeling Loki’s presence next to her.

“I just am surprised to see the work SHIELD is able to accomplish.” She admitted.

Loki hummed as he looked in the box.

Aria cleared her throat after moments of awkward silence. “I should get these to the their respective owners…” she dragged, picking the box up and walking away.

Outside, one by one, Aria handed everyone their information and which transport to take. Those children who were adopted were placed in their families officially and all was well before a dark shadow covered the sun from the camp. Aria hadn’t realized it yet since she was occupying all that she was and had into this project but Thor bursting into the tent made her stop and almost look wide-eyed at the atmosphere change.

“They’re here,” He said breathlessly and with a smile at the end.

Aria handed the last ID and paperwork out and walked outside, seeing a large black ship. Heimdall and Bruce walked up to stand beside Thor and her as the ship came and Aria squinted in confusion at the sight of a rather large black ship. 

“Uh, that’s not one of our transports…” Aria dragged.

Loki joined the four, almost scared at the sight when seeing the ship from inside the cabin. He rushed to their side and swallowed harshly as he realized it wasn't an illusion liked he hoped it was. He started to back away and all heads turned towards him as his breath became ridged, “We have to get these people out of here.”


	7. Chapter 7

The wind started to pick up as the ship had gotten closer to the camp and Thor marched over to Loki, barking at him. “What have you done, Loki?!” He yelled over the wind.

“The longer we stand here, the more lives you put at stake!” He yelled back before turning around and ushering people to leave.

Overhearing through the wind, Aria rushed over to the groups of Asgardians, taking out her sling ring, and thinking of the first place now deemed the worst place: New York. She urged people to go calmly and they did, blending in almost instantly with the people walking by on the street as if they were leaving a family gathering together and all at once. With only a little more than fifty Asgardians to go, Aria watched as the ship landed on the ground and four beings began to walk out of the ship via bridge.

Before one was able to launch their electrifying staff at the group Aria was trying to save, Aria quickly put up a wall of ice where the staff got stuck and seconds later all four beings were in combat with Thor, Heimdall, and Banner (who was now the Hulk).

“Move quickly,” Loki urged as he looked back at the combat already beginning.

“Is anyone going to acknowledge that Aria has powers?!” Thor yelled out as he fought the originator of the first attack. And no one responded as they were all occupied.

Next thing you know, a Squidward-looking man stood on the other side of the ice maniacally looking at Aria and without lifting a finger, ripped the electric staff from the ice and launched it back to its owner as she fought Thor.

With a flick of his finger, a large metal pole from the alleyway on the other side of the portal came piercing through the majority of the remaining people’s bodies, making Aria instantly close the portal to prevent further damage.

She was about to open another one but her hands were instantly held against her body making her look over at the Squidward looking man and freezing him entirely. From the moment of being stuck, a pale version of the other Squidward (this one wore a black hoodie) almost started to fight with Loki until Aria froze the attacker. She rushed over to Loki and the remaining twenty-something people, lifting her hand to open another portal but as soon as she laid eyes on her naked fingers, she started to panic.

She realized how tall the grass was and knew it would be like finding a needle in a haystack so she knew she had to fight for who was left.

“Who are these people?!” Aria yelled over the commotion and sounds of thunder coming from Thor’s battle.

“The Black Order! Followers of Thanos!” Loki yelled back, and before she could ask or even repeat the name, Aria saw Loki’s eyes practically widened in shock. Aria turned around to see the Squidward-looking man break the ice from the inside and advance towards the two. 

Aria started to throw icicles at him as he flicked them away before turning them back around and sending them towards them. In a quick movement, a layer of ice blocked the impact from coming and Loki gave a single nod at her.

“Not bad,” He said simply before going around and helping out with the others.

In that exact moment as she watched Loki fight, in the distance she watched Heimdall get stabbed low in the stomach with the staff of the pale looking version of the Squidward man who seemed to have melted or broken himself out of the ice as well. It must have been horribly bad if he could no longer get up afterward to continue fighting. Aria put a layer of ice over him, stopping the hooded pale man from stabbing him finally in the chest with his staff.

The attacker looked in Aria’s direction, charging towards her at an incredible speed but she froze him over before placing a cloud of snow around the telekinetic Squidward before her, trying to buy time.

Suddenly an icicle came jet speed at Aria and she was only quick enough to move out the way my a millisecond, getting her left cheekbone cut from the icicle.

As Loki fought with Thor against the blue and black woman he knew as Proxima Midnight, he constantly looked back as Aria faced The Ebony Maw and had frozen Corvus Glaive. He would take every chance he got to look over and make sure she was okay. And the fact that there were two against one made him anxious but he could walk away from the tag team going on at the moment to go back and help.

Suddenly, another presence coming out of the ship yelled out to the camp. “Enough!” A deep voice echoed.

Just then, as everyone other than the evil four looked around in confusion, Thor was knocked out by Proxima and left on the floor as Loki was stricken with fear from the man he had hoped to never run into again, Thanos; one of the most feared pirates in the universe. A destroyer of worlds, and anyone who stood in his way.

Aria stopped after hearing the deep voice in the distance and the cloud was still there, but before she could go anywhere to see what was happening, her neck was in the hands of the bald blue man she called her opponent.

“Not her,” the voice called.

Then, still struggling under his grip, Aria had a stare down with the man before he dropped her, and made the remaining Asgardians who were not on the dirt, dead, follow as well.

All except Heimdall was standing before Thanos who was a rather large purple man whose body type resembled a more human-like version of the Hulks, underneath the gold armor he wore. Thanos then ordered the remaining Asgardians to kneel before him, and as they did out of the unfortunate fear they had all felt, he then ordered their execution which his followers so graciously slaughtered, leaving only Aria, Loki, Thor, and unknowingly, Heimdall, alive.

Aria had to close her eyes as a tear almost slipped out as the people screamed and she looked over at Thor’s body whom she thought was dead, then Loki who had looked sadly upon her almost as if to say, please forgive me.

When they finished, Thanos looked around at the bodies before him, then into the distance. “I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless.” He spoke slowly. Then he grabbed Thor from his armor, limply in his grip as he dragged his body in front of both Loki and me. “It's frightening. Turns the legs to jelly. I ask you to what end? Dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here… or should I say I am.”

He then gripped Thor by the head, making him brush the ground with his knees and wake up slightly from being knocked out.

Blood dripped from the side of Thor’s mouth, “You talk too much.” He said sassily.

Thanos didn't pay mind to him, only to Loki. “The Tesseract, or your brother's head. I assume you have a preference.” Thanos started to aim his left armored hand towards Thor as a threat and a purple gem on it started to glow brightly.

The Tesseract was a blue crystalline cube-shaped containment vessel for the Space Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones that predate the universe and possess unlimited energy. That purple gem on Thanos’ gauntlet was one of them. The Power Stone to be more specific. The Space stone could manipulate space and open rifts, making it easy to teleport from planet to planet if desired to and the Power Stone, gives the holder the sort of energy that you could use to destroy an entire planet. And to top it all off, this man wanted all six stones to receive the power of a god. A true god. Not one like Thor, Loki or Aria. 

Aria kept her head straight at the purple man but looked between Loki and Thanos.

Loki kept a stone face, not even looking at his brother once since he was held in Thanos’ hand. “Oh, I do.” The four followers around them kept their weapons drawn and placed it more intently on the two. “Kill away.”

Instantly, Thanos pressed the purple gem on his gauntlet in Thor's temple. The power stone shone brightly and Thor began to wail in pain. Aria snapped her head towards Loki who would not look her way and watched as confliction played in his eyes.

She turned her back to the purple man and spoke lowly to Loki. “Loki, if you don't do anything, I will.”

After moments of silence on Loki’s end, he finally looked at his brother's pain and after watching without an expression, he yelled, “Alright, stop!”

And just like that, Thanos let go. Both closed their eyes exhaling a breath of relief and Aria turned back around to face the purple man.

With the little strength he had, Thor breathed out, “We don't have the Tesseract. It was destroyed on Asgard.”

Loki glanced at his brother like he knew something he didn't and then flicked an eyebrow at Thanos, then looked at Aria for a split second before lifting his right hand into the air and allowing the Tesseract to reveal itself.

Aria again closed her eyes knowing this was obviously something to be kept away from people like the purple man before them.

Thor breathed out gruffly, “Y-You really are the worst, brother.”

Loki looked down at his brother as he stepped up to Thanos, holding up the Tesseract up to him. “I assure you, brother. The sun will shine on us again,” He spoke only to Thor.

“Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian,” Thanos said deeply as he looked down on Loki. Loki backed up a step and brought down the Tesseract a bit.

“Well, for one thing, I'm not Asgardian. And for another… we have a Hulk.”

Instantly, Loki dove towards Aria, shielding her and getting out of the way as the Hulk launched himself at Thanos without warning or even a chance for Thanos' goons to realize he had attacked. The two large men exchanged punches as Loki looked at Aria below him, quickly ripping off the device and throwing it as if it were from the impact.

“What’s the plan?” She asked breathlessly.

“I don't have one,” he replied almost nervously but with a lightness to his voice that the situation shouldn’t allow him to have. He looked at his position above her and gave a brief smile, “At least I got to see you like this one last time.” he laughed softly.

She scoffed, about to push him off of her but in the clarity of his eyes, she saw her natural self and almost scrambled for the device. “Loki, where is it? He won't believe that it’s me. He'll kill me.” Aria panicked, starting to cry out of fear.

Loki hushed her, brushing her hair down and calming her slowly, “No he won’t, just show him your power, okay?”

Seconds later, a loud slump could be heard and the two scrambled to get up. Just then, Thor stupidly hit Thanos with a metal pole and it clanked onto the ground. Thanos kicked Thor to the other side of the ship and Ebony Maw (the Squidward looking guy) wrapped Thor in metal from the camp, not allowing him to move from a sitting-on-knees position.

Suddenly, a familiar looking rainbow light took a knocked out Hulk away from the field and all eyes were on Heimdall.

“That was a mistake,” Thanos said threateningly. He walked over to Corvus Glaive, took his staff and pierced it through Heimdall’s chest, making Thor yell out at the death of his friend.

“You're going to die for that!” Thor yelled before Ebony Maw swiped his finger in the air to bring metal over Thor’s mouth.

Maw did a whole speech on Thanos’ ‘might’ and ‘nobility’ to be able to wield more than one Infinity Stone as he, and the others kneeled, handing him the Tesseract. 

While Aria had urged Loki to play dead somewhere or hide, Loki had resisted as Thanos’ was about to send his, as he says, “children”, to the other parts of Earth where two other Infinity Stones were left. Loki thought it would be a perfect opportunity to tag along for purposes unknown to Aria but she couldn’t hide now. Not while Loki had interrupted Thanos’ orders for his children, making all five of them see her and Loki still alive but obviously not knowing who she was.

“If I might interject… If you're going to Earth, you might want a guide. Aria and I do have a bit of experience in that arena.”

“If you consider failure experience…”

“I consider experience, experience.” Loki corrected. “Almighty Thanos. I, Loki, Prince of Asgard…” He paused, slowly looking at Thor, “Odinson,” then continued as he approached Thanos. “the rightful King of Jotunheim, god of mischief, do hereby pledge to you, my undying fidelity.”

Aria gawked at the sight before her. As he was pledging, a dagger appeared into his hand. She cringed at the scene before her and couldn’t do anything but stand there since any other option would have her dead. She couldn’t even beg him not to do it.

Loki ended with a slow midway bow and after three seconds long enough of a believable pledge, Loki attempted to stab Thanos in the neck but Thanos was quicker, raising the hand with the gauntlet up and using the Space stone to stop Loki mid-movement.

“‘Undying?’ You should choose your words more carefully.” Thanos gripped the hand holding the dagger and twisted it until Loki dropped it, which he did. Then, he gripped Loki by the throat and suspended him into the air, making him wiggle.

Without thinking, Aria froze Thanos’ children, tripling up the layers for Ebony Maw, making Thanos turn his attention away from Loki yet still holding him in his hand.

“One move and the ice will smash into a million pieces. Let him go.” Aria spoke forcefully.

Thanos looked between the god in his hand and the other one threatening him. He hummed deeply.

“Aria, no,” Loki struggled.

“Now!” She yelled.

Without care, Thanos opened his hand, letting Loki fall to the ground. “I knew I kept you around for a reason,” Thanos said menacingly, approaching Aria.

“Aria, is it?” He asked after she unfroze Thanos’ crew.

She looked up at his almost eight feet tall figure. “Spare them, please. Unlike Loki, I keep my word with no belief of a break in an agreement. I could be of use to you,” She said helplessly. She looked over at Loki forcefully stand up and have his back against Glaive's chest, staff to Loki’s chest. Then over at Thor who had nothing but pain in his eyes. “Please.”

Thanos looked down at her, “I know, young one. Your presence alone could be of great use.” He reached for her small hand and lifted her palm upwards. A large snowflake hovered over her hand and Thanos expression shifted slightly into a faint smile.

Aria sighed, happy he was going to take her offer but a sudden pressure on her throat made her scratched at the gold covered gauntlet holding her. He lifted her off the ground to his eye level and her legs flailed as she struggled in fear.

“But I also know that you mean something to someone. And that the pain of losing them would be a greater pain than death itself.” Thanos said, directing the last statement at Loki as he turned, bringing Aria around so both Loki and Thor could see her struggling.

Glaive held his staff against Loki’s chest as Loki tried to move forward to attack Thanos once again.

Aria tried to look over at Loki but the restriction in her neck made her unable to so she cried, “I… forgive you… ” and with that, Thanos increased his force on Aria’s neck.

A layer of frost started to crawl up Thanos’ gauntlet and from the feeling of an extreme cold turned hot made Thanos drop her onto the grass,  taking the gauntlet off and trying to gain feeling back in his hand.

Aria burst into a coughing fit and Loki struggled in his restraints to get to her.

She flung a hand in the air and put a block of ice over Thanos’ hand before he was able to put the gauntlet on again and then she froze his feet into the ground. 

Before Maw was able to unfreeze him, she layered his body in ice before doing the same to the others. Loki slipped out of Glaive's hold and ran over to Aria who had begun to stand and almost froze him from his quick movements.

When she realized it was Loki, she almost collapsed from the breath of relief she struggled to take. She nodded over at Thor and Loki went to take him out of the metal hold he was under.

Thanos looked at Aria, darkly. “Let me out of this,” He tried to move but his body stayed in place. Without thinking, Aria waved another few layers to Maw’s body and looked back at Thanos who was growing angrier by the second. “Why must everyone make mistakes today?” He said rhetorically.

Thanos then began to try and break the ice away by smashing the cube covering his hand on the ground but Aria froze his knees to stop him from bending before adding another layer to Maw’s body.

The stones in Thanos’ gauntlet began to glow and Aria shot an icicle his way before he could point it at her. With a loud thud, the gauntlet was detached from Thanos completely.

Thanos looked down at it and back at Aria before trying to reach for it before she could and Aria had put a shield over the gauntlet to prevent him from grabbing it and raised the ice to his waist so he was forced to stand straight. 

He huffed into the air before talking out in the open, “This universe is finite, its resources... finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correcting. I am the only one who will do something about it. The only one who is willing to pay the price of salvation and here you are playing in the snow like a child.”

Aria slowly dropped her hands from the guarded position they were in and Loki looked over as he was struggling to get any metal off his brother and noticed her guard lowering. “Don’t listen to him!” He yelled. 

“You’re only willing to ‘pay the price’ because it is not you who is paying, the universe will. Innocence deserves no punishment.”

“Always the innocent are the first victims. So it has been for ages past, so it is now.”

An anger boiled in in Aria’s blood and with a swipe of her fingers, Proxima Midnight, the other Hulk looking guy, Corvus Glaive and Ebony Maw were shattered into a million pieces, killing them instantly. Thanos looked back at her in shock.

“Loki, the Gauntlet,” Aria ordered, making Loki rush over and take it from Thanos’ reach.

“You claim me to be a monster but you’re the one who just murdered a man's closest companions out of spite,” Thanos said deeply, eerie to the others in the field. In a jolt of his body, Thanos had begun to crack the ice surrounding his body from the waist down and Aria had tried to layer more ice over his body but with every jolt, it cracked.

Aria looked over at Loki who was holding the Gauntlet with both hands and using it to bend the metal off of his brother. Once Thor was out, catching his breath, Loki started to look at the Gauntlet more intently. He knew how much power he held in his hands, even with only two stones he would be the most powerful being in the universe. Out of curiosity, Loki put his left hand into the rather large piece of gold and instantly, it shrunk to his hand size.

Before Aria could turn around to address the newfound silence, she was face to face with a free Thanos who gripped her throat tightly, without starting the anticipation of a lose grip turning tighter. 

“Oh how the tables have turned,” He stared into Aria’s eyes as he addressed Loki, “The Gauntlet.” He demanded. When he got no response, he tightened his grip more, making Aria’s legs frail.

“Thanos let her go and we’ll give you the Gauntlet,” Thor lied. 

“No,” Aria struggled. “Use- it,” Her breaths became shorter by the second. Even as the ice grew, Thanos didn't bat an eye at it as if he was immune to it. 

Loki and Thor looked at the Gauntlet on his hand and back at her. Loki shook his head from confliction, “Not while you’re there-” 

“Do it!”

Loki looked at the Gauntlet then to his brother.

“We have no other choice,” Thor said defeatedly but in a rush.

Thanos looked Aria dead in her eyes, “You’ve placed your faith in a failure. Typical,” He chuckled darkly, noticing Aria’s practically dead figure then he looked at Loki cockily, “Do it.”

Loki looked at the Gauntlet one more time as if he were considering taking it off then in a swift movement he aimed it at Thanos, using the Power Stone to disintegrate him. Aria dropped to the grass before the energy going through Thanos could get to her and Thanos had started to yell in agony. His flesh peeled off his body and turned to ash, flowing into the wind.

Both Loki and Thor rushed over to Aria who had not gotten up yet and seconds later, incredibly smaller black ships, no doubt SHIELD’s transports begun to surround the three as if their timing couldn’t be worse.

Agents flooded out of the transports and drew their weapons, pointing them at Loki who was still trying to wake Aria up. Thor stood up instantly, ready to explain the misunderstanding at hand but with little to no evidence of anyone else who could’ve caused the damage, all signs automatically pointed to the man who tried to rule the Earth once before.


	8. Chapter 8

Two agents appeared behind Loki, restraining him and another two carried Aria into a transport. Agents also held onto Thor and while he tried to explain himself, no one would listen.

But Loki said nothing.

He watched as they took Aria. He watched as they placed her on the bench across from her. He watched as all they did was check for a pulse and a flood of other agents rush around to take care of the massacre that was the camp. SHIELD would make it seem as if nothing happened. Its one of the things they did best.

Loki watched Aria’s body across the ship from him and for a moment, he was back on Asgard.

 

 **Asgard, 300 years ago**  
A scream could be heard throughout the palace and instantly, guards rushed over to the origin of the scream, passing Loki’s chambers on the way.

It had been more than forty two hours (in Earth approximation) since Loki's announcement and Loki was completely numb. He no longer felt the blood drip from his knuckles or hands as he destroyed things here and about. He no longer felt his stomach growl from hunger. He didn't even feel the normality of his heartbeat anymore. Sleep was a factor his body longed for, but he refused. He wanted to feel something. Anything. But he was broken.

He pretended to be sane for the palace’s sake. When he had to leave his room, he made himself look normal and acted as if. When speaking to his father, he pretended he didn't want to hurt him for the damage he's done but in the end, Loki knew it was for the best reasons. At least he let himself believe that and all the pain he caused he blamed solemnly on himself.

Something in Loki told him to leave his room and investigate despite his strong desire to remain alone and as he followed the running guards, his pace slowly quickened as the hallway turned into a more familiar temporary room.

Aria decided to only stay in the palace when meetings with the Court were early in the morning or if nights with Loki happened to be longer than expected but other than, she would go to her home in the village.

Frigga was the first to see Loki coming down the hallway and while Thor was inside the room already, completely horrified at the scene and wanting to burst out and hurt his brother. Frigga moved past the guard to get to Loki before he could get remotely near the room.

“Mother, what's going on?”

She looked back before pulling him to the side, “I don't think you should be here right now,” she said conflicted.

“Why? What happened?” Loki asked, eyes curiously looking at the room.

“Aria is dead,” She breathed out as if she had been trying to avert from saying it herself.

Loki’s jaw clenched harshly as he forced himself to stay in one piece. “What happened?” His voice strained.

“Poison, maybe. I'm not entirely sure,”

“Was it murder?” He asked darkly, sure he would kill whomever was to blame.

Frigga crossed her arms, holding herself. “Its too soon to determine anything definitely. I could let you know everything we find before the ceremony tonight. You will attend, won't you?” She asked softly.

Loki looked at the door one last time, coincidentally when Thor glanced to the side and caught his eye. Thor’s own spilled few tears he couldn't help. Something must have shone a figment of sadness in Loki’s expression because the hard look Thor gave him, despite the wetness on his cheeks, turned slightly confused as if he had seen exactly what Loki was thinking, doing, even feeling. Loki tore away from his gaze and gave his mother a small smile, “I will attend.” he declared and with his response she turned and walked back to the scene.

That night, Loki put an illusion of himself in his place at the ceremony. Other than in combat and times when he would sneak out to see Aria at the start of their relationship, illusions were never something Loki used often in his daily life.

Until now.

And Frigga noticed but couldn’t bring herself to speak on it from her own sadness from the event at hand. So she kept to herself and let the white/ blue light hovering in her and many others at the ceremony float out of her possession as the boat, now in flamed by arrow, went off the edge of the waterfall of Asgard's plane. 

Loki stood under the tree Aria used to come to at night. The one he watched her paint under, sometimes just sat under. The one where he first talked to her. The one he and Aria used to sit under together to talk and instead of the woman he loves sitting on the plot of grass next to him, laughing at another story about he and his oaf of a brother, bottles of, well, Loki didn't even know himself, were emptying more and more as he watched the ceremony through his doubles eyes.

He looked down at the bottle in his hand and huffed in slow realization, “I am forever changed.” he said before taking another swing.

The way she laid lifeless in the boat, covered and surrounded by flowers resembled her near dead (if not already) body on the transport and even though he had enough to drink that night with no effect (because he is a god), Loki had never felt the substance more.

Same as now.

 

**Now**

He was scared. He was scared that he had truly lost her for real this time and instead of reaching out to that feeling even from the possibility that it was true, and showcasing it, he kept his pain internal and put up a front. 

“You’re wasting your breath, brother.” Loki said plainly, tired of the empty glances people gave Thor instead of listening. Thor stopped, looking at Loki with a slack jaw. Loki still made no eye contact, eyes waiting to see a movement of Aria’s chest or a deep gasp awake coming from her. “We didn’t exactly look innocent.” he tilted his head slightly, turning his head to look at Thor.

“For once in your life you're not guilty, and you're just going to take the punishment?” Thor nearly yelled.

“What does it matter? I won’t be let go that easily on any case.” Unconsciously, Loki felt the cool touch of the Gauntlet on the skin of his fingers. If he wanted to, he could use the Power Stone to kill every SHIELD agent or the Space Stone transport all three of them (or just he and Aria) to a different planet on the other side of the galaxy but that would only make matters worse, making it seem as if he had really done it. Plus, Aria wouldn’t be too pleased.

Thor looked down at the Gauntlet on his brother’s hand and watched him. Loki glanced over, noticing his brothers growing state of weariness.

“No need to fret, I wouldn’t do anything to make matters worse for you.” Loki said sarcastically looking back over at Aria laying on the bench across from them. Why no one checked on her? They thought she was knocked unconscious but being that she was in Thanos’ hold for quite some time, Loki held his breath on it.

Suddenly, the transport came to a halt and the main door opened, making both Thor and Loki squint at the light. Both were approached by agents before forcefully standing up and escorted off the ship to see Nick Fury, Agent Hill and Natasha all standing there.

“Y'all better have a damn good explanation as to what the hell happened out there,” Fury scolded as both Loki and Thor were taken to a containment room.

Once Natasha saw Aria without her disguise being carried out on a gurney like table, her stone scold morphed into creased eyebrows and without a word she followed to the room she was taken to but didn't even allow herself to go inside. She watched through the small window of glass as Aria laid lifeless. Noticing no one was there checking on her, she walked towards the aid unit. “Room 114 is occupied. Possible comatose. I need a full check and update in twenty minutes.” With that, few agents rushed out of the room and in needing answers, Natasha walked over to the containment room Loki and Thor were in and crossed her arms over her chest.

“What happened?” She asked firmly.

Thor was pacing with crossed arms, “Thanos happened,” he said gruffly.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a who but that has no matter. He was the greatest threat known to man and we defeated him,” Thor said plainly, starting to rock as he stood in place.

Before Natasha was able to ask if “we” meant Loki and him or he and Aria, Loki’s faint voice echoed through the glass. “Has she woken up yet?” Loki asked as he sat on the floor in the back, keeping to himself.

Natasha bit down on her jaw and swallowed hard, “No,” Loki closed his eyes and leaned his head back to rest on the glass. Natasha resumed back to Thanos, “Was there anyone else with this Thanos?”

“Four others but they’re dead too.” Thor said matter of factly.

“Okay. Start from the beginning. What happened as soon as I left?”

While explaining everything to her, Loki said nothing due to the images too fresh in his mind for his enjoyment. Less than an hour ago he was in the grip of Thanos, on the brink of death and for once it would be the real him who would’ve died and not a double he had grown accustomed to killing off which made it all the more terrifying. And the fact that the love of his life possibly fell victim made him all the more out of character.

As the story went on, Natasha stole glances from Loki, surprised to hear from Thor what his younger (adopted) brother had done. Help out and not be the cause? It seemed sketchy but then again, Thor wouldn’t lie on the accounts of his brother’s mistakes, he would want to take him down himself.

When the part came that Loki had worn the Gauntlet, Natasha snapped her head towards Loki, starting to report a weapon into her earpiece but she stopped as he took it off and placed it next to him. “It’s not in my interest to destroy the universe at the moment.”

“Then what are your interests?” Natasha asked, eyeing the Gauntlet and man beside it. Loki absentmindedly raised an eyebrow as she continued, “You could’ve used that thing to get yourself out of here but you didn't.”

Loki adjusted himself uncomfortably, “Like I said, It’s not in my interest at the moment.”

Thor walked over and took the gauntlet from its spot and Natasha pressed a code in to open the glass containment door ajar enough to take the gauntlet. Loki didn’t even look up as they passed it and when Natasha put the code in to close the door, an agent came in to take her away. She passed him the Gauntlet and made their way.

Once again the two were left with nothing but each other and the empty air around them. Thor turned towards his brother, noticing his lacking surge of ego. “She’ll be fine, Loki.” He said before turning back around and feeling a warmth in himself for his brother.

 

A man in a blue karate-like robe and red cape draped on his shoulders and a (now human) Banner walked into the SHIELD headquarters main control room via Sling Ring portal, making every agent in the room draw their weapons. Natasha walked in just in time to see the two and the man walked up to Fury and Natasha.

“Where is she?” the man asked calm yet demandingly.

“Why don't you start with who the hell you are and how the hell you got in here?” Fury retorted.

“Doctor Stephen Strange. Opening a portal is a simple spell done by-”

“Actually, I don't care. Banner,” Fury called as Banner and Natasha were having a stare off with each other and snapped him away from it. “This guy legit?”

“Uh yeah, yeah,” Banner stammered, trying to recompose himself.

Fury looked over at Strange for the last time before rolling his eyes. “Agent Romanoff, take them.” and the agents went back to their work as if nothing ever happened, typical SHIELD day.

Natasha walked off with Strange and Banner, taking them to a room where the only thing that allowed them to see inside was a small cube window. But Natasha opened the door and let the two inside, staying at the door since she couldn’t bring herself to go inside at the presence of her comatosed friend.

“Nat, this isn't her,” Banner pointed out.

“Yes it is, just not as you knew her,” Strange replied as he approached the body.

Strange took out a Sling Ring, one that he found on his first stop to Norway where he thought the fight was still going on since the Hulk reverting back to its human form, showed up in his secret hideout, and placed it on the table beside Aria’s bed.

All that was left in Norway were agents of SHIELD picking things up along with a large black ship a football field wide and in sensing a familiar presence, or source of power, Strange found the ring of his only student who wasn’t really a student at all and just needed help getting around but needed to be taught properly.

“So you mean to tell me that that is Elizabeth?” Banner asked, “Blonde bob, green eyes, probably a size 6 in jeans…” He continued and Natasha pulled him to the side to give a brief explanation. Banner mouth morphed into an “O” shape and started to put the pieces together as she explained, remembering the talk of an Aria girl before Loki and Heimdall fought. The tension before, after, and during a meeting. The whispers involving both names but never occurring to him they were the same person.

“Then that makes sense,” he frowned his lips as he nodded his head. Before Natasha could ask how so, Strange started to move his hands, catching boths attention.

With a combination of hand gestures, a green light emitted from the necklace hanging from Strange’s neck down to his chest and his hands began to glow that same bright green as they began to hover Aria’s body.

 

 **Meanwhile**  
“Brother I should’ve known better than to blame you for what happened to her. It changed our relationship and I pretended it didn’t.” Thor spoke openly as he sat on the floor across from Loki.

“That’s one way of going through it,” Loki said whistly.

Thor turned, looking down at his brother as he sat on the floor across the room. “I’m being sincere. If I had known-”

Loki cut him off, “What? Would you have retaliated against our father? Begged for him not to do it?” Thor stayed quiet as he couldn't find the words.

After moments of silence, Thor sighed, “I suppose you didn't have a choice…”

“Oh I did, and you know damn well why I chose it.”

 

Aria woke up with a deep gasp and started to panic, thinking she had died and Thanos evil grin was the last thing that she had seen and was the first thing she woke up seeing. Natasha rushed past Banner and Strange, placing a hand on Aria’s shoulder, making her jump at fear that it was Thanos telling her she was to be under his control until the end of time. She calmed slightly upon seeing Natasha instead.

But then she started to panic again at the remembrance of purple. “He's coming,” she shakily breathed. “Thanos, he-”

“He's dead,” Natasha finished.

Aria furrowed her eyebrows, “What?”

“Thor says Loki killed him.”

 

After an hour of sitting in silence, the sound of a heavy door sliding open startled the gods a bit. Once they saw who was coming through the door, the two stood up from the floor and approached the glass.

“Lady Aria,” Thor put his palms on the glass.

Aria stood holding herself in baggy clothes, not of the clothes she had worn when she got to SHIELD Headquarters, and gave a soft smile. “Hi.” she waved, letting the longevity of her sleeve flop over her hand. She looked at the other god approaching the glass slowly as if he were seeing a ghost. Natasha walked in from behind her and approached the control pad, breaking the connection on Aria’s end but Loki remained. Natasha pressed in the code and the glass door moved to slid open.

Thor wanted to rush the door open as he couldn’t wait to hug the friend he thought he truly lost, again. He rushed through once there was enough space and held her in a bone crushing hug for a short amount of time before the god behind them spoke.

“The both of us?” Loki asked as Thor let go of Aria.

Natasha smirked, “Unless you want to stay in there,” Loki looked at the three before stepping out of the unit and Natasha put up a hand, stopping him before he could walk anywhere else. “Under some conditions…”

“I beg your pardon?”

Before Natasha could start the long list of terms and conditions that was negotiated between SHIELD, Fury, Strange and Aria, Aria cut her off. “May I speak with him, alone?” She asked in more of a statement than question and without another word, Thor and Natasha left, watching them through a monitor in another room.

“Conditions? They might as well keep me locked in this-”

“Loki,”

He instantly stopped.

“They’ve agreed to let you go. Would you like to hear the conditions before you act that way?”

Loki let his chest fall from a short breath he was holding and gestured for her to continue.

“But- before I list, I need to ask something of you…”

“Ask away, love.” He smirked, trying not to let his years of new attitude leave so easily.

Aria swallowed harshly before crossing her arms over her chest. “Tell me what happened in New York.”

Loki breathed a laugh, “Im sure they told you plenty,” He turned to look at the control panel as if it were the most interesting thing in the universe.”

“As they did, Loki. But you haven’t. That’s an entire half of a story untold.”

Loki traced his fingers along the sides for the buttons, not even thinking of pressing them. He sighed, knowing she would let him get off so easily as she had once deeply cared about his story, but he couldn’t tell her the full truth, even if the man responsible was no longer around.

“I tried to rule as Odin did. I thought it would make him proud.” His tone shifted as he spoke. It became more mechanical as if he had repeated that line once before. All the more reason not to believe that was all, so she tried to word around it.

“Where did you get the Tesseract?”

“An old friend.” He responded quickly with ease.

“You call Thanos a friend?” She retorted, making his jaw clench instantly.

“What makes you think it was Thanos?”

“An army, the Tesseract, manipulating those to help you. A city filled with innocents, destroyed. For him?” A distaste lingered on her tongue. She wanted to hear what he had to say about the matter, hoping it would not be what they had told her. But his attitude was revealing just that, except now it brought Thanos into the mix as if he knew Thanos wasn’t going to kill him, only let him in his crew with the price of her.

“It’s not that simple, love.” he tilted his head, now moving closer to her but she backed up as he got too close. Loki gnawed on the inside of his cheeks as he watched her conflicted icy blue eyes his behind a strand of hair.

“You have thirty seconds to start making sense, Loki or I’ll personally throw you back into that cell,” She spoke with a strain in her voice and the darkness almost put fear into the god.

“After you...-”

“Do not pin this on me.” She warned.

Loki put his hands up in surrender, thinking before choosing a different start. “After your death, I became a, more than usual, how do I put this… um… attention-seeking, narcissistic strategist. Well, I’ve always been strategic but-”

“Loki.”

He sighed, dropping his head to hang down. His voice turned softer rather than nervous as he had begun to pace, possibly to start telling the full truth. “Thanos, he uh, he,” Loki was dazed in thought as his mouth stated to turn dry. The longer he couldn’t get it out, the more the pieces began to fit in Aria’s head. The way fear played in him, the fact that Thanos called him a failure in terms of Loki’s experience, it all made sense.

“He wasn’t too keen on the idea of failure. So he uh, he used the Tesseract, as I did to enslave others, on me and I was sent to do his work. Death would’ve come to my doorstep if I failed or took the Tesseract for myself so I needed help. They would’ve been powerless separate, but together… the Avengers needed to be made and, well, I needed to get their attention somehow...” Loki got cocky towards the end and glanced at the camera he knew was in the room and Aria caught it.

She glanced at the cameras she knew were in the room and bit down on her jaw before freezing them over and flinging her hand towards the door, freezing it over with a thick layer of ice that began to shake a split second after she froze the cameras. She approached Loki, cupping his face in her hands and bringing his eyes to her level.

“No ears, okay, Loki? Please, I can’t take another lie.” Aria begged, gritting her teeth in anger. The door banged, a crack in the ice chipped off a chunk.

“The only lie I ever told you is that I didn’t love you,” Loki looked into her eyes and the anger so visibly dangerous faded lightly even as she ripped herself from him. He watched her as she just stood there with an unreadable emotion and even as the door burst open with Thor coming in shoulder first and Natasha along with Strange and Banner filed in behind her, neither of the two could rip their eyes away from each other.

“Aria,” Natasha called, trying to snap her out of it but she kept her composure. “Aria!”

Aria’s fists tightened, conflicted by her emotions. She was angry for one. The fact that he had been bringing about these feelings she had shoved away for years only angered her more. She forgot what it was like to hear those words, especially from him. She forgave him. She shouldn't be shocked by it. Yet she was.

Thor stepped in between the two, towering Aria as he looked down at her due to their height difference. “Lady Aria,”

“He’s cleared.”

Natasha’s voice got louder as she was closer to Aria, “But-”

“He’s cleared,” She repeated, careful not to use an angering tone. She looked up at Thor then over at the others in the room. “The ice melted a second later, the footage is there. I just needed you clear from the monitors. He’s telling the truth. He’s cleared.”

Aria looked back up at Thor and he held onto her shoulders as if he were trying to look into her mind, but all he could see was the woman whose heart he once saw shatter before his eyes. He looked back at his brother who was just standing there inches behind him and sighed before looking at Natasha and nodding once. He then clenched his jaw before walking off.

“I still think he should be banned from Earth.” Natasha spoke lowly to Thor as he approached her to stand by her side with crossed arms.

Banner spoke from the other side of Natasha, “Yeah, I mean, what if this psychopath decides he wants to go A-wall and open a portal in the sky to bring an army to enslave the Earth, again?”

“I believe Lady Aria if she says she believe him. Besides, it’s not so bad if he brought us together in hope to take down Thanos one day. I’ve made good friends out of it.” Thor smiled softly as he watched Aria explaining the terms of Loki’s stay to him.

Loki blinked when she finished and held out a hand. “W-w-w- wait. I assume there will be close monitoring considering I cannot leave the planet without permission, let alone the city, and I doubt you had queues of agents who wanted to babysit me so, who exactly am I to have following my every step?”

Before Aria could reply, Agent Hofferman came in slipping on the ice on the floor by the door with a clipboard in hand. “A-Aria, m-may I speak with you?” he stammered as he tried to stand without shaky legs.

Aria turned around to see the scientist before digging into her loose pocket for the small device created just for her. She sighed as she looked down at its silver finish and then to the confused faces around her. She fiddled with the denyuralizer as she stepped towards Agent Hoffner and once she stood in front of him, she handed it to him.

“Thank you, but, I think stripping what happened would include forgetting everything,” she started as she started to look around at the others in the room. “And I don't think I could do that.”

Agent Hoffner gave a quick smile before nodding and taking off.

Aria then turned around and walked up to Loki.

“For a moment, I thought you were going to introduce me to the man that is to watch me in my time of solitude.” Loki sassed as Aria approached him.

“Do you, Loki of Asgard, swear to oblige to the terms and conditions negotiated as an alternative to imprisonment under the custody of SHIELD?” Aria asked as she got closer.

He swallowed, worry and nerves flowing through him. “It would be worse to say no,” he sassed lightheartedly.

With that Aria took out the sling ring she had put into her pocket and slipped her fingers though it before opening a portal. On the other side, her cottage home in Norway with no more tents and bodies or SHIELD agents surrounding it sat in the distance. Both the Asgardian and Thanos’ ships remained in their places on the field and the agents that were examining and documenting Thanos' ship when Strange was there were nowhere to be found.

Before Aria was about to walk through the portal, she looked back at the god. “Well don't just stand there. Are you coming or not?”

Loki looked over at Thor, Natasha, Banner and Strange as they watched, wondering if they were going to intervene or object but when Thor gave his brother a thumbs up and wink, Loki smiled softly to himself. His eyes found Aria’s once again.

“I thought you'd never ask.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading and I hope it wasn't horrible. This is officially the first book I have ever finished. I just might cry.
> 
> Yours truly,  
> Alice N_Wolf


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